Chapter 11: J2EE – The Eclipse Way

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Why Tools?

Often we repeatedly do something which turns out to be time consuming and frustrating  over a period of time. Not only in computing but this happens in general. Most of the times, we tend to automate it & make it easier to accomplish.
So the aim of software is to automate these type human tasks and save time, effort, money. But the funny part is that the developer who creates a software also has a set of repeated tasks. What are the possibilities ?
For example, let’s take the compilation of servlets. what are we doing there ?

1. We write the servlet program, save it as filename.java under the src folder.
2. We compile it and A filename.class gets created.
3. We copy (or cut) the .class file and paste it in classes folder.
4. Reload the application.

Now even if we make a small change, we have to repeat all 4 steps. Consider if we have some 50 servlets in the src folder, repeating them lead to horrible software development.

Code for Code

Tools are developed these days to make software development quick and easy. These tools are usually termed as IDE (Integrated Development  Environment). So i tagged “Code for Code”, just because people write code to develop a tool which will be used to code :) Like “Tit for Tat”.

Advantage of Tools

Using a tool for software development makes life easy for a programmer.
Basically speaking (oops, it’s writing actually :)) tools gives,

• Efficiency: Enhances coding productivity.
• Speed: Lesser development time.

Technically speaking, a tool has the following common features.

1. Syntax highlighting for better visibility.
2. Validation mechanisms that helps get rid of errors during development itself.
3. Code Assists that provides technical insights.
4. Automatic compilations & builds.

What: Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is a free, open-source multi-language software development environment comprising an IDE and a plug-in system to extend it. It is written primarily in Java and can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of the various plug-ins, in other languages as well, including C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and others.

(Taken from Wikepedia)

Eclipse: Installation

Installing eclipse is equal to unzipping a .zip file. Only two steps.

1. Download eclipse (click here to download)
2. Unzip the downloaded file (to anywhere in your hard disk).

That’s it. Installation complete. Start coding. Have fun. Enjoy the pleasure of the advantages.

Tomcat Plug-in for Eclipse

Eclipse is a tool which has a limited set of features after installation. It provides a feature called plug-in using which we can add any feature later. Tomcat has provided a plug-in for eclipse using which we can start/stop the tomcat server from eclipse itself.
When we create a Tomcat project, eclipse will automatically create the standard folder structure for you. Like the WEB-INF, src, classes etc.,

Tomcat Plug-in: Installation

Again, Installing an eclipse plug-in is equal to unzipping a .zip file. Only two steps.

1. Download Tomcat Plug-in for eclipse (click here to download)
2. Unzip the downloaded file (to <eclipse-install-dir> \ plugins folder).

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