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The document is about how to build Geronimo an eclipse project. For purposes of this discussion the development OS is Windows. Please adjust these instructions for your environment.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, you have to intall the following software:

  1. Install Eclipse following the guide in Installing Eclipse.
  2. Install Maven 2.2.1 or above.
  3. Install Subversion.
  4. Install the Maven Plugin for Eclipse. You can install this plugin from Maven Integration for Eclipse update site.

Creating Eclipse Projects

You could import all the Geronimo projects or sub-projects in the workspace. But a more efficient way is to import only the modules that you want to work on.

Working with multiple modules

You are advised to import all the modules the first time you work with Geronimo builds in Eclipse.

Generate the Eclipse projects for Geronimo sub-projects by invoking the following command from Geronimo top directory:

mvn -o eclipse:eclipse

Note:

The very first time you must omit the "-o" parameter so that it will download the maven-eclipse-plugin.

mvn eclipse:eclipse

It is possible to import only a few modules in the workspace by running the above command from each of the modules directory. In this case the changes made in one module will not be visible to other modules without rebuilding the modified module with mvn.

Useful Information

It is possible edit .classpath files so that the changes made in one module are visible to all other modules in the workspace instantly. This is meant only for advanced users.

Working with a single module

If you are planning to modify a single geronimo module, you can import only that module in the workspace by running the following commands:

cd modules\a_module  or  cd maven-plugins\a_plugin
mvn -o eclipse:eclipse

Firing up Eclipse

After you create Eclipse projects for Geronimo, it is time you import these projects to the Eclipse workspace.

  1. Click on File > Import> General > Existing Projects into Workspace.
  2. Select project or projects depending on how you created the project in the #Creating Eclipse Projects step.
  3. Click Window > Preferences > Java > Build Path > Classpath Variables, and click the New button.
  4. Enter M2_REPO and set it to your maven2 repository directory. On linux this directory is usually located at
    ~/.m2/repository
    
    and on windows its usually at
    "%USERPROFILE%\.m2\repository"
    

Note: If you are working on a builder module, for example. geronimo-tomcat6-builder, you must add xmlbeans classes to the build path.

  1. Right click on the builder project and select Build Path > Configure Build Path > Java Build PAth > Add Class Folder.
  2. Check target/clover/classes folder from the selection.
  3. To prevent Eclipse from copying the .svn directories to the output folder of projects, click Window > Preferences > Java > Compiler > Building > Output folder, and append .svn to the *Filtered Resources field.

Building Geronimo source code in Eclipse

You can build each Geronimo module by right clicking on the project, and selecting mvn options.

Info:

  • If you plan on contributing code or patches to the project, you have to configure eclipse to not use tabs. Select Window > Preferences > Java > Code Style > Formatter > Java Conventions [built-in], and click on Edit. Under Indentation select Tab policy as "space only". Enter a new name for this profile and click OK.
  • You might want to configure the Geronimo development environment by importing the Geronimo formatter and code template files.