IDE setup

Pre-requisites

You need to install a JDK (Java Development Kit). The usual JRE needed to run and use Freeplane is not sufficent to make developments on Freeplane.

Eclipse package

Like Freeplane, Eclipse is based on an OSGI kernel. For this reason Eclipse provides very good support for developing OSGI applications:

• All Bundle properties can be managed via the project properties.
• One launch configuration for eclipse in the Freeplane sources, freeplane_devresources/eclipse/freeplane-osgi.launch, uses Eclipse' standard OSGI implementation.

Note: Unlike in the "real application" it's necessary to list all plugins to load in the launch configuration. In the regularly deployed application all plugins in the plugin subdirectory are loaded. (By the way also the user's Freeplane directory is scanned for plugins in a plugin directory if this exists.)

Therefore you need an eclipse version with Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), for example Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers

Getting Started Working with Freeplane Within the Eclipse IDE

Setup

• Make sure you have a copy of the Freeplane code - see the Git How To for more information.
• Grab a copy of the newest version of Eclipse from the Eclipse download page. You need an eclipse version with Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), for example "Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers".

If you are running on GNU/Linux, you may need to install the packages "eclipse-pde" (or something like that) and "eclipse-egit".

• Specify a path to your JDK in eclipse.ini setting -vm option as described at http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse.ini#Specifying_the_JVM
• Start up Eclipse - It should prompt you for a workspace (this is an area where your projects will be stored). Have this where you set up your git home directory.

Importing The Projects

Before we can start working with Freeplane we have to "import" it as a new project:

• Goto : File -> Import...
• Under "General" -> Existing Projects into Workspace
• Select root directory should point to the git working directory. At this point a project list should appear.

Note: If you are not developing for Apple Mac you can deselect the freeplane_mac project.

• Choose Finish. The projects should be added and the workspace will automatically "build".

Note: If at this point it complains about freeplane_ant this can also be removed as Eclipse does not ship with the correct ant version.

Compiling required jar files

Before the first run some auxiliary jar files should be compiled

• Run ant build in directory freeplane_framework/ant with target "build"
• Refresh all projects

Launching the Project

Now that The project has been imported we need to set up the launcher:

• Goto : Run -> Run Configurations
• Locate the OSGi Framework entry.

If this entry is not there, the required Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) is missing, see above.

• Duplicate configuration freeplane-osgi. Give the new configuration name freeplane-osgi local
• Select Tab "Common" and select "save as local file"
• Under Mac-OS also select tab "Arguments" and add VM argument "-Xdock:name=Freeplane"
• Upon clicking "Run" Freeplane should appear.

You are now ready for development/debugging within Eclipse.

Settings

In project freeplane_devresources you find

• some launch configurations for starting the application
• eclipse code-templates, formatter and clean-up configuration files which must be used if you contribute your code to the project.

Version control integration

You can use eclipse git plugin EGit. Look at Git howto for more information.

Useful Eclipse plugins

• For properties files, especially for language resources, the Properties Editor plugin is useful. You can install the Properties Editor plugin directly within Eclipse by following these short steps.

Git Eclipse: troubleshooting

There are 2 commons problems you can be faced to when using Git in Eclipse. Here are the solutions.

• At Eclipse startup if Eclipse displays a warning message "EGIT could not defined where git is installed", open Eclipse then go to Windows > Preferences > Team > Git > Configuration > Tab 'System Settings' and here in 'Location' you can indicate your Git installation folder. See the following page to install and use Git in Freeplane project.
• When, in Eclipse, you are running the build.xml stored in Freeplane_framework, you receive the following error message "[exec] Execute failed: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "git" (in directory "[Directory]"): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified" resulting in a build failed. Then follow these steps in Eclipse: go to Run > External Tools > External Tools Configurations.... Then select the ant file you want to run. Then select the tab 'Environment' and click the 'New...' button to add a new variable. This new variable name should be set to PATH and the value should be the folder where Git is installed, for instance D:\AppsJavaDev\Git\bin.