To work with Eclipse 4 modeled applications, it is necessary to install the E4 tools to allow the application XMI to be edited through an editor. These are not shipped with the standard Eclipse distribution package, and must be installed separately.
- Add the following update site by going to Window | Preferences | Install/Update | Available Software Sites, then click on Add... and put in:
- Juno (4.2): http://download.eclipse.org/e4/updates/0.13
- Kepler (4.3): http://download.eclipse.org/e4/updates/0.14
- Click on OK in the Add Site dialog and on OK in the Preferences page to add it. Once added, go to Help | Install New Software and then select the newly added site in the list. Select the the following features:
- CSS file editor
- CSS spy for Eclipse 4
- Eclipse 4 core tools
These add the ability to edit both
cssande4xmifiles, and create Eclipse 4 applications by a wizard, which are used to create and render the user interface in Eclipse 4.
- Restart Eclipse after the install has completed.
- Go to File | New | Project and verify that Eclipse 4 | Eclipse 4 Application Project is seen in the new project wizard's choices.
Installing the Eclipse E4 tools and E4 CSS spy provides a custom editor for e4xmi files, as well as css files. In addition, the CSS spy can be called with Alt + Shift + F5, or via the Quick Access search bar.
To run the CSS spy in a launched application, add org.eclipse.e4.tools.css.spy to the required bundles in the launch configuration. (Don't add them to the product definition unless the product's end users need to be able to invoke the CSS spy.)
There is also a live EMF editor which can be called with Alt + Shift + F9. This is useful for exploring the Eclipse runtime, either in the IDE or in the launched application. To add the live EMF editor, add org.eclipse.e4.tools.emf.liveeditor to the launch configuration.
Don't forget to click on Validate plug-ins and if necessary Add required plug-ins to ensure that the tools' dependencies are present in the launched product.