designerJDTCore.jar adding itself to plugin buildpaths

[watkid]

Hi,
I'm using the free version of SWT Designer 1.2 for Eclipse 2.1.1 on Win 2000. I've noticed that whenever I go to a plugin manifest dependencies page and select 'Compute Build Path' it adds the designerJDTCore to the project class path (doesn't show in the manifests dependency list). It's not a major hassle but does cause problems for non-SWT Designer team members.

Previoulsy I was running earlier versions of SWT Designer without this problem, any ideas?

Regards, Dave Watkins

[admin]

Does your project has dependence on JDT core (standard, not designer one)? In new version we ship designerJDTCore as feature for JDT core, this is best known method for adding functionality for existed plugins.

In versions before 1.2 we add classes manually, so this was invisible for rest of Eclipse.

[watkid]

Wow, quick response!
Yes, all my plugins use the standard JDT core plugin in some way (or at least depend on a lower plugin that does). Is this going to work like this forever - if so, would it not be possible to add a nature to the project so at least there is some degree of control over whether you get the jar added or not (invoking the editor could check for the nature and add it if necessary).... Just a thought.

dw.

[Eric Clayberg]

Is this going to work like this forever

Yes.

After further analysis, I think this a definte case of the "Compute Build Path" function being overly agressive (and simplistic). This is really a problem with the PDE itself that has nothing specific to do with SWT Designer. I tried some tests involving other fragment jars added by other plugins (both open source and commercial) and the same thing happened. The fragment jars were all pulled in even though none of them were needed. The PDE should either never include fragment jars in that computation, or it should have an option to ignore them.

On the bright side, there is a very simple work around. All you need to do is delete that line from the .classpath file and you will be fine. That jar file is not needed by your plugin in any way. Personally, I don't even like using the "Compute Build Path" function as it tends to screw up other aspects of the .classpath file.

[watkid]

The fragment jars were all pulled in even though none of them were needed.

Ahh, I thought it was a bit odd that SWT Designer was altering the classpath. Now I understand why. You are right - it sounds like something the PDE should allow the user to control.

Thanks for shedding light on the underlying issue.

dw

BTW, since upgrading to Eclipse 2.1.1 I haven't had any problems with the PDE screwing up my buildpaths (prior to 211 it used to forget about my /src and /bin directories).