Adding jars to a Eclipse PlugIn
I try to build a Eclipse plugin that has to use a self written jar which is dependent on other jars, but I don't get the point where to start with handling jars as seperate PlugIns. Anywhere I have to use just the .jar files or am I wrong?
I think I found a proper solution; the trick is that you have to implement all the files via Eclipse. I just copy here the solution which was posted to news.eclipse.platform:
Include the jars in a plugin:
- Use
Import
>File System
to import the jar files into your plugin project, say in the<project>/lib
directory. - Use
Add...
button to add the jars to the classpath section of theplugin.xml
>Runtime
tab. - Use
New...
button to add "." library back (with no quotes, of course). - Make sure your binary build exports the new jar files on the
plugin.xml
>Build
tab. - Save
- On the project, use
context menu
>PDE Tools
>Update Classpath
to correctly add the jars to the eclipse project classpath.
What is a self-written jar?
Normally you turn 3rd party jars into bundles using an OSGi MANIFEST.MF (See New>Plug-in Development>Plug-in from Existing JAR archive) or you include them in your plugin.jar and add extra Bundle-ClassPath entries as mentioned by TomaC.
If you mean at runtime your plugin will create a new jar and needs to load it, that's different, though.