Eclipse Cookbook

12.4. Testing Plug-ins with the Run-time Workbench

Problem

You are developing a plug-in, and you don’t want to keep stopping and starting Eclipse each time you want to test the plug-in.

Solution

Launch a runtime workbench, which opens a new workbench with your plug-in already installed for testing purposes.

Discussion

If you want to, you can build the plug-in created in the previous recipe and deploy it to the plugins directory (see Recipe 12.5). But for testing purposes, there’s an easier way. All you have to do while developing a plug-in is to launch a runtime workbench, which will appear with your plug-in already installed.

To launch a runtime workbench, highlight the plug-in project in the Package Explorer, select Run→ Run, click the Run-time Workbench node in the left pane of the Run dialog, and click the New button, creating a new launch configuration, as shown in Figure 12-9. Accept the defaults by clicking Run.

Tip

The next time you want to launch the Run-time Workbench, you can simply select Run→ Run As→ Run-time Workbench.

Figure 12-9. Creating a launch configuration

This starts the Run-time Workbench. You can see the menu defined by the plug-in, Sample Menu, and the button (with the Eclipse icon) it adds to the toolbar in Figure 12-10.

Tip

If you don’t see your plug-in in the Run-time Workbench, select Window→ Customize Perspective→ Other, check the “Sample Action Set” checkbox defined ...