Using newly created plugins

[rashmis]

hi,

I had made some changes in the Activiti source code (modified existing plugins and added a few plugins of my own). It is working fine when i launch my test for these changes using right click -> Run As -> Eclipse Application on org.activiti.designer.eclipse folder in my workspace.

Now I want to test this as stand alone. i.e, copy all my plugins (built using mvn clean install) onto a fresh eclipse helios installation and replace its existing activiti jars with my plugin jars… in which case I should see all my changes on launch, right ? But that is not happening ? What am I missing ?

Note : I started off making changes with activiti 0.6.0 releasesource code and now I see that the latest update available for eclipse is 0.8.0. So i replaced all the org.activiti.*-0.8.0.jars in plugin directory with my *-0.6.0.jars . But this is not working either.

Please help.

[rashmis]

I was checking the features.xml in the \features\org.activiti.designer.feature_0.6.0 directory … it list all the activiti pluginf but it is not listing my plugins. What should i include in my plugins directories inorder to update the features.xml accordingly ?

[rashmis]

Please help.

[tiesebarrell]

Rashmis,

one way to do this is to make sure you setup a similar structure to the one Activiti Designer has. So you need a parent module and child modules for your own bundles plus a feature that lists your bundles. Most importantly, create a module to build an update site in the same way we have.

Perform a mvn install on both parent projects and ensure all is well.

All you have to do then is take a fresh Eclipse, add 2 update sites (local ones) by pointing to the target/site directory of the updatesite projects and first install Activiti Designer, then your own plugins.

Make sure you use a fresh Eclipse installation each time you build a "product". Reinstalling and/or replacing bundles is not a recommended way to test new functionality.

[rashmis]

Rashmis,

one way to do this is to make sure you setup a similar structure to the one Activiti Designer has. So you need a parent module and child modules for your own bundles plus a feature that lists your bundles. Most importantly, create a module to build an update site in the same way we have.

I have a similar structure (plugin project) as that of thee Activiti designer project. All i am doing is including my project in the parent/pom.xml as one of the modules. So that while i run mvn install in the parent directory, my module also gets built.  mvn install creates a jar of my plugin project. Just including this jar in the plugins of a fresh eclipse installation with all the other designer jars is not good enough ? If editing the feature list is mandatory, then editing the org.activiti.designer.feature => feature.xml will not work ?

Perform a mvn install on both parent projects and ensure all is well.

All you have to do then is take a fresh Eclipse, add 2 update sites (local ones) by pointing to the target/site directory of the updatesite projects and first install Activiti Designer, then your own plugins.

Make sure you use a fresh Eclipse installation each time you build a "product". Reinstalling and/or replacing bundles is not a recommended way to test new functionality.

[tiesebarrell]

This depends on how you install your plugins and Activiti Designer in Eclipse. If you just drop in plugins, as opposed to generating an update site, the approach differs.

AFAIK, to activate plugins directly, you're best off dropping them in the dropins folder in Eclipse.

I would prefer updating the feature to include your plugin though, even if you are then editing the Activiti bundles. Even better is to create a whole new setup as I described as this makes your approach less fragile to updates to Activiti Designer.