Working with Eclipse

Last modified by Thomas Mortagne on 2023/06/08 09:55

This document contains instructions on how to configure Eclipse for building and developing XWiki. It should be noted that these are generic instructions, some components / sub-projects of XWiki might require specific configurations on Eclipse that may not be covered in this document.

It is necessary that you Install & Configure Maven before trying anything here.

Prerequisites

  • Knowledges:
    • This tutorial does not explain how Eclipse/JDT works and how to install Eclipse plugins
    • You should already know how to build XWiki using maven and also how maven generally works, how to create pom.xml, etc. You can look at Building XWiki.
    • You should take a look at general XWiki's sources repository structure.
  • Tools
    • Java JDK 11 or superior

Get the source for XWiki

Clone platform repository somewhere in your computer different from your Eclipse workspace:

git clone [email protected]:xwiki/xwiki-platform.git

or replace [email protected]:xwiki/xwiki-platform.git with your own fork of platform.

Installing Eclipse

  • You can download Eclipse from the Eclipse Download Site. Alternatively, you can download one of the many Eclipse distributions, such as the "Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers" which includes other features and plugins such as the Web Tools Project.
  • Install the Maven Eclipse plugin (if you installed "Eclipse IDE for Java EE - Kepler" distribution, the Maven Eclipse plugin is already bundled with it)
  • Optionally you might want to install the Web Tools Project (WTP) feature if you want to deploy XWiki to a support server without having to leave the Eclipse IDE, See The WTP homepage for details and Installing and Using the Eclipse Web Tools for help. (this is not needed if you installed the "Eclipse IDE for Java EE" distribution)
  • [Optional] You might also want to work on AspectJ based legacy code legacy, for that you should install the AJDT Eclipse plugin.

Importing a project With M2Eclipse

  • Now we're going to import the XWiki source (checked out above) into your Eclipse workspace. Select [File->Import] and under the Maven category, select Existing Maven Projects and click Next.
  • On the next screen, point Root Directory to whatever XWiki module you wish to work on. If you point the Root Directory to top-level repository folder, you will end up with a gazillion Eclipse projects. Therefor only select the module you wish to work on, and keep in mind that M2Eclipse will take care of dependencies.
  • Finally, click Finish to dismiss the import wizard and let the workspace adjust itself (this will take some time depending on the number of projects to be imported).
  • Now you can execute maven goals simply by right-clicking on the project and then [Run As-><Maven Goal>]. Observe the output from maven now appearing on the Console viewer of Eclipse.
  • That's it! Happy Hacking...

Other useful tricks/tools

  • To dynamically validate your java code on XWiki codestyle you should use and configure the Eclipse Checkstyle plugin.
  • Look at Development Tools for a list of useful development tools.
  • You can use XEclipse to edit wiki pages. XEclipse was once maintained by the XWiki Development Team but for lack of active development has been moved as a Contrib project and now depends on the community for any future evolution. It is no longer supported by the XWiki Development Team.

Debug XWiki

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