[dres1011]

This is a general question about eclipse but maybe you or your product can help me. I have been using eclipse for about a year and a half and love it. I think your product is probably the most useful one to come out and am considering purchasing it.

The only problem I have not been able to resolve is eclipse’s build process. I want to only use Ant because the eclipse java build is limited and problematic. I cannot figure out how to disable it. It requires me to have an output folder. And until you change a preference, it constantly builds you project. However, the main issue is it calls the java builder even when you just want to run ANT. Is there a way to stop this?

Maybe I’m just not setting up my project correctly to use the java builder. But I have no control over that anyway. I want to only use ANT anyway because of build dependancies. I tried adding an ANT as an external builder but I still cannot delete the java builder. Help!!!!!!!?!?!?!!!

[Riyad Kalla]

dres,
yes you are right this doesn’t really apply to our product, but I’ll take a shot 🙂

A good portion of Eclipse’s functionality is provided by its custom compiler (unused imports, unsed private vars, unsed, etc. etc. etc.). To turn off the compiler would effectively be turning off most if not all of these more advances features (sans the real-time syntax checking). I do not believe there IS a way to turn off the compielr because it is so tightly integrated… although I can’t imagine why having it incrementally build your class files is causing you trouble… is your code so strangely organized that having the program build actually holds up your development?

[dres1011]

you’re right on. but it should be possible to point the output folders to where my classes are to get this functionality. In fact that should not even be necessary to navigate from a method call to its source. But I can only do this in java projects. That is my problem. Any other thought?

Thanks.

[Riyad Kalla]

dres,
Help me clear up a few things and maybe I can help:

1) Are you working on a pure Java project or a web application?

2) You sentence “… to where my classes are to get this functionality” is incorrect if I’m reading it right… the reason Eclipse is able to do those special compiler checks is because it is processing your source code while its compilng it. It doesn’t store information like “unused import on line 61” IN the generated class file. So if you were to point Eclipse’s output folder AT some directory that you compiled your project into with ANT it wouldn’t do anything useful.

3) If you NEED to be able to tell Eclipse to stop compiling, the best you can do is to turn off its incremental compiling, but ultimately (like you found) whenever you run the build sequence it will compile. Maybe someone in the newsgroups can help you hack your way around this?

[dres1011]

It is as bad as I thought. I have inherited a J2EE app. It was built ignoring some standards and the organization is poor. I thought I had a compromise by turning on individual output folders. But then I tried to specify the locatio where ANT was putting my classes. The output dir is in the source dir and eclipse does not allow that. I think I’m screwed unless somebody knows how to get around that one. Thanks anyways.

[dres1011]

sorry about not being clear:

1) J2EE in eclipse as Java project so I can use the neat stuff
2) Thanks, I understand now. All I could have hoped to do is limit the compilation by specifying my output folders the same as in ANT. See previous post.
3) I wish there was some way of decoupling the profiling the classes for the cool stuff from the compilation of the code.

[dres1011]

Any idea which preference keeps it from scrubbing the output folder?

[Riyad Kalla]

ahhh ok I think I understand you better:

1) avoid scrubbing output folder: no you can’t avoid it, Eclipse does that.
2) J2EE app == yes MyEclipse can help ease some of the development burden by handling deployments, editing and so forth.
3) compiling into source folder: just go into the source folder, remove all the class files, open up your project properties, and set a different build path (say c:\myproject\WEB-INF\classes)
4) As far as setting different compilation targets PER project, no you can only have 1… more specifically you cannot, on a PER PROJECT basis set that you want to build some source files into one location, and other source files into anotehr location. You can however setup separate projects for all the logically separate components of your J2EE app.
5) MyEclipse can help manage this IF you are able to break the big app into separate apps. If you create an enterprise application in MyEclipse, it can contain other EJB Modules or Web Project Modules. These “modules” appear as projects, so you work on them normally, but in the Enterprise Application project, you set these modules up as dependencies, so when you deploy your app, MyEclipse will take care to deploy all dependencies of that Enterprise Application for you as well.

Please note that I’m not saying MyEclipse will FIX anything, you do have a problem with the app and need to get it correctly organized first and foremost.

[dres1011]

I ll give it a try.

[Riyad Kalla]

dres,
Please feel free to download and try out MyEclipse for 30 days using Eclipse 2.1.2 and see if it ends up helping you. We are happy to answer any specific questions or problems you run into.

[dres1011]

Just wanted to post that a resolution to this problem is in eclipse 3.0M6. They have decoupled the java builder from the profiler that does all the neat stuff. Or at least it appears. Also included is the ability to disable the java builder. I turned it off and still have the code assist and navigational tricks that make eclipse so great. 😀

[Riyad Kalla]

very interesting solution, I’m glad it is working for you now.

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