Eclipse Liberty Project Helper — elph

A tool to help set up an eclipse workspace for working on Open-Liberty.

Post any questions to #was-elph on slack

Prerequisites

• Build Open Liberty locally
• Java 17 or above
• SDKMAN (optional, but recommended for managing Java SDKs)

  • Search for the lastest Java versions to install

      sdk list java
    

  • Install the latest Semeru version of Java 17 e.g. 17.0.8-sem:

     sdk install java 17.x.x-sem
    

  • Use the Java 17 version you have just installed

      sdk use java 17.x.x-sem
    

Installing ELPH

• Clone the repo locally

    git clone git@github.com:joe-chacko/elph.git
  

• Add the path to your cloned repo of ELPH to your PATH environment variable so that your command line knows where to find the executable.

  • In an editor of your choice add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc depending on if you are using bash or z shell:

    # Add the elph home directory to the PATH
    export PATH=/path/to/elph/dir:$PATH

  • Run the following command to immediately apply the changes to your PATH environment variable:
    • Bash Shell: source ~/.bashrc
    • Z Shell: source ~/.zshrc

Running ELPH

• Invoke elph help — this will build the tool and give a description of each of ELPH's commands.
• Optionally invoke source <(elph generate-completion) to enable tab completion in your current Bash or Zsh shell.
• Invoke elph setup -i — this will configure it interactively. Run it again without the -i to display (and validate) the config.
• Invoke elph analyze — this will take a little while (under 1 minute) to query bnd about your workspace.
• Invoke elph list '*yoko*' — this will list all the known projects that contain 'yoko' in the title.
• Invoke elph eclipse — this will start Eclipse with the configured workspace.

Setting up Eclipse

Turn on build automatically

• Click the Project tab at the top and ensure Build Automatically is checked

Install bnd tools

• Install bnd tools by going to the tab at the top of Eclipse and selecting Help > Eclipse Marketplace > BndTools > Install > Confirm

Filter errors

It will help when debugging Eclipse errors is to filter what you can see in the Markers view pane.

• Click on the filter (a funnel icon) near the bottom of the page
  1. Create a new filter called All Errors with Scope No filter, show all elements and Show severities where severity is Error
  2. Create a new filter called Errors on Project with Scope On elements in selected projects and Show severities where severity is Error

Use All Errors when importing projects and just Errors on Project when fixing individual problems.

Importing projects

Below are some useful pointers for importing projects with ELPH. As an example, try the following instructions to import the project cnf:

• Run elph import cnf to import the project. This should open a window in eclipse.
  • Uncheck all checkboxes in the Import dialog
  • Check the "Hide already open projects" checkbox
• TIP: For fast importing, hold down the return button instead of clicking finish for each project import in Eclipse.
• Go back to your terminal and press return to continue.
• If for some reason you exit the terminal process before importing all the dependent projects (e.g. using CTRL+C), run elph reimport to resume importing.