Initial Project Setup / Eclipse Workspace

The Eclipse workspace folder should be created as per the development folder structure:

  • Linux Linux: ~/cdss-dev/StateMod/eclipse-workspace
  • Windows Windows: C:\Users\user\cdss-dev\StateMod\eclipse-workspace

Note that if Eclipse is not the IDE that is used (future consideration), then this discussion still applies in concept.

The following sections are included in this documentation:

Prerequisites

Creating an Eclipse workspace requires that Eclipse is installed and it is recommended that Eclipse is run using an Eclipse run script.

Background

An Eclipse workspace contains numerous files including:

  1. .metadata folder containing the files in the workspace, in particular the list of projects, which are in: .metadata/plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects. Each project has a folder with name matching the eclipse project name and under that is a .location file that indicates the location of the project files on the file system (this location will match repository folder after configuration of the Eclipse project).
  2. Plugin files that contain dynamic content generated during the Eclipse session.

Although it is possible to create one workspace and manage multiple development efforts under one workspace, it can become confusing. The following assumes that a new workspace is created specifically for the StateMod project consistent with the development project folder structure.

Create Eclipse Workspace Folder

The Eclipse workspace folder can be created through the Eclipse workspace selection wizard (see next section) but can also be created as follows and then selected in Eclipse. It is assumed that the parent folders were created in previous steps. The workspace folder will not be saved in the Git repository because it contains developer-specific files.

Linux Linux

$ cd ~/cdss-dev/StateMod
$ mkdir eclipse-workspace

Windows Windows

> C:
> cd \Users\user\cdss-dev\StateMod
> mkdir eclipse-workspace

Specify Eclipse Workspace Folder to Eclipse

If Windows, start Eclipse using the build-util/eclipse/run-eclipse-statemod-mingw.bat run script and select the workspace folder created in the previous step, for example for software developer "sam":

Eclipse new workspace

Pressing OK will create the .metadata folder in the workspace folder, under which are many files for plugins and to manage project files. The following blank workspace will be shown:

Eclipse blank workspace

The welcome tab can be closed to reveal the normal interface.

Workspace files will not be committed to the Git repository because they are large, dynamic, and can vary by developer. If workspace files were committed to the repository, then developers could undo each other's workspace configuration on a regular basis. For this reason, it is important to NOT store Eclipse project files under the workspace folder. Instead, the files in the Git repository folder will be linked to the workspace in a later step.

Workspace Configuration

Additional configuration of the workspace may be desirable.

TODO smalers 2016-11-20 evaluate whether more configuration is needed or not, such as code format preference.

Next Step

See the configuration of the Eclipse StateMod Project.