Eclipse Cookbook

3.2. Creating a Java Project

Problem

You want to begin programming, so you need to create a new Java project.

Solution

Select File→ New→ Project, or right-click the Package Explorer in the Java perspective, and select New→ Project.

Discussion

All Java code has to go into a project of some kind in Eclipse. Although we covered the basics of creating a new project in Chapter 1, we’ll take a more in-depth look at the process here.

To create a Java project, open the New Project dialog by selecting File→ New→ Project or by right-clicking the Package Explorer and selecting New→ Project. Select Java in the left pane and Java Project in the right pane, as shown in Figure 3-2, and click Next.

Figure 3-2. The New Project dialog

Give the project a name in the next dialog, as shown in Figure 3-3, and click Next.

Tip

The “Project contents” box shown in Figure 3-3 is where you specify the location of the project. It can be very useful to store the project where other software, such as the Tomcat web server, can find it. To select a custom location for the project, uncheck the “Use default” checkbox, and browse to a new directory.

Figure 3-3. Naming a project

The final dialog in this sequence, shown in Figure 3-4, contains four tabs; here’s what they do:

Source

Enables you to specify source folders (discussed shortly) ...