Eclipse Rich Client Platform - Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java Applications

Welcome to the companion CD for Eclipse Rich Client Platform - Designing, Coding, and Packaging Java Applications by Jeff McAffer and Jean-Michel Lemieux. Copyright 2005 Jean-Michel Lemieux and Jeff McAffer. All rights reserved. Copyright 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Code or samples provided herein are provided without warranty of any kind.

System Requirements

The following are the minimum and recommended system requirements for using this CD:

 Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows XP®, Apple Mac OS X 10.4, Linux ™

Readme Contents

CD Contents

This CD contains everything you need to follow the tutorials and run the sample code from the book. It also contains all of the tooling and infrastructure needed to write your own Eclipse RCP applications. In particular, the CD contains:

  1. Eclipse Platform SDKs, version 3.1 for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
  2. Eclipse RCP SDK, version 3.1 for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
  3. Eclipse Delta-Pack, version 3.1
  4. Sun JDK 1.4.2_08 for Windows and Linux
  5. Exercise template files and solutions
  6. Samples and tools

We recommend that you first read Chapter 3, Tutorial Introduction, which outlines all you need to know to install the Eclipse IDE, set-up your development environment, and use the Samples Manager to import and run the sample code on this CD. The sections below summarize these steps for those who just can't wait. Note that Chapter 3 includes much more detail and additional steps.

Installation and Use

Installing the JDK

You may already have a JRE or JDK installed on your machine. If you do, please ensure that it is version 1.4.2 or higher. If it is, you can safely skip this step and use your existing Java implementation.

Windows
Simply run the JDK installer found at <cd location>/java/j2sdk-1_4_2_08-windows-i586-p.exe
Linux
Note that it is highly likely that your Linux distribution includes a Java install package. You might consider using that. If you want to install the supplied JDK...
  1. Open a shell
  2. cd to the spot you want to install the JDK
  3. Run /mnt/cdrom/java/j2sdk-1_4_2_08-linux-i586.bin
  4. Agree to the license and watch the files get extracted
Mac
Mac OS X comes with a Java. Alternate versions of Java are available from apple.com.

Installing the Eclipse IDE

Again, you may already have the Eclipse 3.1 SDK installed. Feel free to use that version. If you do not or would like a new copy, follow the steps below.

Windows
Unzip the archive at <cd location>/eclipse/eclipse-SDK-3.1-win32.zip in the desired spot. The book assumes you have this installed in c:\ide.
Linux
  1. Open a shell
  2. mkdir the directory into which you want to install the target (e.g., ~you/ide)
  3. cd into the created diretory
  4. Run tar zxvf /mnt/cdrom/eclipse/eclipse-SDK-3.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
Mac
Unzip the archive at <cd location>/eclipse/eclipse-SDK-3.1-macosx-carbon.tar.gz in the desired spot (e.g., ~you/ide).

Installing the Target

Windows
Unzip the archive at <cd location>/eclipse/eclipse-RCP-SDK-3.1-win32.zip in the desired spot. The book assumes you have this installed in c:\target.
Linux
  1. Open a shell
  2. mkdir the directory into which you want to install the target (e.g., ~you/target)
  3. cd into the created diretory
  4. Run tar zxvf /mnt/cdrom/eclipse/eclipse-RCP-SDK-3.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
Mac
Unzip the archive at <cd location>/eclipse/eclipse-RCP-SDK-3.1-macosx-carbon.tar.gz in the desired spot (e.g., ~you/target).

Run Eclipse

Windows
Double click on c:\ide\eclipse\eclipse.exe
Linux
  1. Open a shell
  2. cd to ~you/ide/eclipse
  3. Run ./eclipse -vm ../../j2sdk1.4.2_08/jre/bin/java &
    Note that if an appropriate JDK/JRE is already on your path you can omit the -vm arguments.
Mac
Double click on ~you/ide/eclipse/XXX

Install the Samples

Now that you are up and running you need to install the RCP book sample code and Samples Manager. This is included on the CD in an Eclipse Update site. Install the samples using the following steps.

  1. Go to Help > Software Updates > Find and Install... > Search for new features to install.
  2. Create a New Local Site and enter <cd location>/updates as the location and click Finish.
  3. In the resultant wizard choose RCP Book > RCP Book Tools and then walk through the steps reading and accepting licenses etc.
  4. When prompted to restart, click Yes.
  5. Then use RCP Book > Samples Manager and select and import the sample code for Chapter 4.
  6. In the Package Explorer right click on the org.eclipsercp.hyperbola project and select Run As > Eclipse Application. You should see a simple Hyperbola shell application start.

Now are are up and running. Refer to Chapter 3 for more details and refinements to this process.

Technical Support

The contents of this CD are provided AS-IS and do not include technical support.

© Copyright 2004, 2005, Jean-Michel Lemieux and Jeff McAffer. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Code or samples provided herein are provided without warranty of any kind.