Installing And Configuring Eclipse Plugins
Overview
The purpose of this tutorial is to install the Enactor Tools, which is an Eclipse plugin. Please ensure you have completed the pre-requisites before starting this tutorial.
The following guide has been written with Microsoft Windows as the base operating system. As a result, some references to application options and screenshots may differ if you use a different operating system.
What You Will Learn
- How to install the Enactor Tools
- How to configure Eclipse to support Enactor development
Prerequisites
- Java
- Eclipse IDE
- MariaDB
See Required Software for details
Eclipse Application Configuration
Required Changes
Due to changes in the newer versions of the Java Virtual Machine that prevent JAXB from using reflection, some configuration changes to Eclipse itself are required.
Ensure that you have exited the Eclipse application.
Navigate to the following directory C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\eclipse\jee-2023-06\eclipse
replacing [USER_NAME]
with your Windows user account name or to the home directory of your eclipse installation
Select to edit the Eclipse.ini
configuration file
Due to an Eclipse update with how the JVM and JAXB behave, the following arguments should be placed after the existing -vmwargs
instruction
--add-opens=java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED
Due to an Eclipse update, the following ensures the Enactor Tools plugin does not attempt to access its preferences before they have been initialised, the existing argument value should be updated to false
-Dosgi.dataAreaRequiresExplicitInit=false
If you are using Ubuntu 22 or above and have issues with the Enactor Tools not working properly, navigate to /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
and uncomment the below line WaylandEnable=false
Restart Eclipse for the changes to take effect.
Optional Changes
Eclipse can be given more RAM if the host machine has the capacity.
To do this, update the values for the argument -Xms
and -Xmx
-Xms512m
-Xmx4096m
Restart Eclipse for the changes to take effect.
Enactor Tools Plugin Installation
Launch the Eclipse application, when prompted for a workspace enter the following path C:\Development
Click the Launch button
To install the Enactor Tools plugin, Open the Install New Software wizard by selecting the Help Menu → Install New Software
Click the Add... button.
Enter the name Enactor Tools
in the Name text box
Enter one of the following URLs in the Location text box;
- https://dev.enactor.co.uk/tools/current for the current stable release (recommended)
- https://dev.enactor.co.uk/tools/latest for the latest beta release
Click the Add button
Enter your Enactor Active Directory Credentials.
Click the OK button
Select the Enactor Tools plugin entry and click the Next... button
Complete the installation and allow Eclipse to restart.
-
Dismiss any errors/warnings regarding the Enactor Tools licence.
-
If there are any problems connecting to the Enactor Tools site over HTTP using Eclipse, it is possible to download a zip file of the update site from https://dev.enactor.co.uk/tools/ and manually add it to Eclipse from your local machine. For instructions on manually installing an Eclipse plugin, follow the instructions here.