Eclipse Cookbook

12.2. Creating plugin.xml

Problem

You want to do the minimal work required to create a new plug-in.

Solution

At a minimum, every plug-in needs a plugin.xml file that tells Eclipse about it. And if you have a plugin.xml file, you have a plug-in—even one that doesn’t have any code. Start off plugin.xml with a standard XML declaration, add a <plugin> element, and set the id, name, version, and provider-name attributes of this element. Then store plugin.xml in a folder in the plugins directory to install this rudimentary plug-in.

Discussion

To get a handle on how Eclipse views plug-ins, we’ll create a minimal plug-in now, which has only a plugin.xml file. This file is called the plug-in manifest, and it tells Eclipse all about the plug-in and where to find the Java support code, if any. Because, as far as Eclipse is concerned, all you need to create a plug-in is a plug-in manifest, we’ll create one now as an example.

Use any text editor that can save plain text, including Eclipse, to create a plug-in manifest for a plug-in named org.cookbook.simple. Here’s what plugin.xml looks like when specifying the plug-in’s name, ID, version number, and provider name:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin
    id="org.cookbook.simple"
    name="Simple Plug-in"
    version="1.0.0"
    provider-name="Plug-in Power Corp.">
</plugin>

Plug-ins are stored in the eclipse/plugins folder, in folders reflecting their name and version number. To indicate that we’re creating version 1.0.0 of this simple plug-in, store