Time for action – building a feature

Features can be built in the same way as plug-ins, although this time the packaging type is eclipse-feature.

  1. Move the com.packtpub.e4.feature project underneath the com.packtpub.e4.parent project.
  2. Add the line <module>com.packtpub.e4.feature</module> to the parent pom.xml file.
  3. Copy the pom.xml file from the clock plugin to the feature project.
  4. Modify the packaging to <packaging>eclipse-feature</packaging>.
  5. Change the artifactId to com.packtpub.e4.feature.
  6. The resulting pom.xml file will look like:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/
  POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-
  4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
      <groupId>com.packtpub.e4</groupId>
      <artifactId>com.packtpub.e4.parent</artifactId>
      <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </parent>
    <groupId>com.packtpub.e4</groupId>
    <artifactId>com.packtpub.e4.feature</artifactId>
    <!-- version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version -->
  <packaging>eclipse-feature</packaging>
</project>
  7. Run mvn clean package from the parent and it should build both the plug-in and the feature:
    [INFO] Reactor Summary:
[INFO] 
[INFO] com.packtpub.e4.parent .................. SUCCESS 
[0.070s]
[INFO] com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui ................ SUCCESS 
[1.872s]
[INFO] com.packtpub.e4.feature ................. SUCCESS 
[0.080s]
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS

What just happened?

By adding the feature into the list of modules, the feature is built at the same time as everything else. The version of the plug-in built earlier is used to compose the feature contents. If the plug-in wasn't listed as part of the Maven build modules and it couldn't be resolved from a remote repository, then the build would fail.

The child module will inherit the groupId and version of the parent project, if specified. As a result, the version can be commented out (or removed), which makes managing the versions easier.

At present, the feature and plug-in are built but cannot be easily installed into an existing Eclipse instance. The assumption is that the plug-ins and features can be tested using PDE directly in Eclipse, and that, therefore, there's no need to directly install a plug-in or feature from the result of a build.

It's necessary to define an additional module—an update site—that will allow the plugin to be installed or hosted.

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