Eclipse integration
Developing modules within OpenCms leads to numerous errors and slower development as it lacks a good integrated development environment, or IDE for short. To edit schemas (xsd files), templates (jsp files) and everything else that can be packed into a module, the Eclipse Development IDE is predestined. Developing modules has been distinguished from content editing, which is the reason for using a CMS.
For editing modules within the Eclipse IDE three free plugins are currently available: the OpenCms Module Developer (Eclipse Public License v1.0) from Red Star Development, efs-cmis from Marc Johnen and OpenCms VFS (LGPL) from Laughing Panda. While the development of OpenCms VFS is discontinued, the other modules are still under development.
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OpenCms Module Developer
The OpenCms Module Developer gives you access to the modules within the virtual file system of your OpenCms installation. The plugin lets you choose a module to edit, which is in turn loaded into the development-folder (the real-file system) of Eclipse. Here the files can be created and edited.
Features
Current features of the OpenCms Module Developer (version 0.0.8) are:
- New Module wizard
- Support for OpenCms 6.0 through 8.0.4
- Support for special web container configurations, such as database drivers that are located in a shared lib folder
- Eclipse Library containing the OpenCms binaries is automatically added to your project's classpath and optionally the OpenCms core source code is added as well
- Upload your module to OpenCms, overwriting existing files and removing obsolete files. OpenCms properties set on existing files are preserved
- Upload (as above) and publish your module to OpenCms
- Download your module from OpenCms, overwriting existing files and removing obsolete files
Requirements
- Eclipse 3.2 or newer
- Java 1.5 or newer
- OpenCms installation: OpenCms versions 6.0 through 8.0.4 are supported
When communicating with OpenCms, about 22MB of memory from Eclipse is used. Please adjust your memory settings of Eclipse as appropriate.
Installation
The OpenCms Module Developer is an eclipse-plugin.
- Download the current version from Sourceforge
- Stop Eclipse, drop the downloaded .jar file into the /plugins directory of Eclipse and start Eclipse with -clean option
- After (re)start, first set the preferences on the OpenCms Module Developer preferences pages in Eclipse (Window | Preferences...)
Red Star Development created a video tutorial that guides you through the preferences setup and usage.
Usage
Have a look at the video tutorial.
License
As of version 0.0.8: Copyright (C) 2012 Red Star Development, sourcecode released under the Eclipse Public License v1.0.
Links
- RedStar Development
- OpenCms Module Developer Home
- OpenCms Module Developer download (Sourceforge)
- video tutorial on configuration and usage
- subversion repository
- bug report
- feature request
OpenCms efs-cmis
The OpenCms efs-cmis gives you access to the modules within the virtual file system of your OpenCms installation by mounting a specified folder via the standard CMIS as a folder in eclipse (EFS). Additionally the mounted folder will be backed up to a specified folder in workspace for versioning.
Features
Current features of the OpenCms efs-cmis (version 0.1) are:
- Dialogue to create a new linked ressource
- Support for 8.5.x
- Real-time editing of VFS-Resources
- Support for the OpenCms Module-Manager which can import complete modules and also deploy them via ssh
Requirements
- Eclipse 3.2 or newer (tested with 4.2, but should work with earlier releases as well)
- Java 1.5 or newer
- OpenCms installation: OpenCms version 8.5.x are supported
Installation
The OpenCms Module Developer is an eclipse-plugin.
- Start Eclipse.
- Start the installation procedure : select the Help>Software Updates>Find and Install... menu item.
- Select "Search for new features to install" option and click Next.
- Click New Remote Site...
- Give a name (ie efs-cmis site), enter the URL http://www.johnen.biz/efs-cmis/
- Select this new site in the Sites to include in search list and click Next.
- Select "CMIS Efs probider" in the "Available software" list and click Next.
- Accept the terms of the license agreements and click Next.
- Verify that the install location is your Eclipse installation directory, otherwise select the correct one, click Finish.
- A warning appear telling the feature is not signed. Ignore and click Install to continue.
- Accept to restart the workbench to load the plugin into the workbench.
Usage
Have a look at this blog-entry.
License
Eclipse Public License 1.0
Links
OpenCms VFS (outdated)
OpenCms VFS development is discontinued. It officially supports Eclipse 3.2 and Opencms 6.x.x. OpenCms VFS can map the virtual file system (VFS) of OpenCms in Eclipse. Ordinarily, if you want to create files (such as jsp and xml files) and edit them, you would do this via the OpenCms workplace, using the integrated editors of OpenCms. However, these editors are very simple, and not comparable to the sophisticated IDEs typically used by developers (e.g. Eclipse).
What is it?
OpenCms VFS is an Eclipse plugin used to access OpenCms' virtual file system from within Eclipse. It is intended as a tool for OpenCms development, not content editing.
Features
- Basic VFS operations (edit, copy, move, delete, publish, lock, unlock) except new file creation .
Releases
- 0.0.3 (http://www.laughingpanda.org/~shonkone/opencmsvfs/releases/opencmsvfs-0.0.3.zip) (Change Log)
- 0.0.2 (http://www.laughingpanda.org/~shonkone/opencmsvfs/releases/opencmsvfs-0.0.2.zip) (Change Log)
- 0.0.1 (http://www.laughingpanda.org/~shonkone/opencmsvfs/releases/opencmsvfs-0.0.1.zip) (please read the Release Notes)
Installation
- Download the distributed file
- Unzip the file in your Eclipse directory
- Start Eclipse
- Edit the preferences (Window/Preferences.../OpenCms VFS Preferences)
Note: The plugin will not work unless you set the preferences correctly
- Start the view (Window/Show view/Other.../OpenCms/OpenCms VFS)
Upgrading
- Delete file plugins/org.laughingpanda.opencmsvfs_x.x.x.jar
- Unzip new version's package in eclipse -directory
- Start eclipse with -clean option
Supported software versions
OpenCms
- 6.2.1
- 6.2.2
Eclipse
- 3.2
License
Copyright (C) 2006 Sami Honkonen
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or any later version. Resources
Developers
- Sami Honkonen (http://sami.honkonen.fi), project lead (when emailing me about issues concerning OpenCmsVFS, use my work email address)
- Alexander Kandzior
Thanks to
- Pekka Enberg
- Joni Freeman
