Converting existing Java projects into PDE projects

A PDE project is a project that "knows" that it hosts a plug-in and is eligible for plug-in-specific operations. Although the very presence of a manifest file is enough to use many PDE features, there is a slant towards Java plug-in projects because most of the plug-ins are written in Java. One of the most useful feature set in PDE revolves around computing and managing Java class path for plug-ins and fragments under development.

PDE is fully capable of working plug-ins in the workspace represented as ordinary Java projects. However, it is cannot offer incremental file checking, capability-based filtering and other similar features if a Java project does not have a full PDE capability.

It is possible to convert a regular Java project into a PDE project at any point. For example, you may have some Java classes that you want to package into a library and share with others as a plug-in. Alternatively, you may want to get full support for manifest syntax checking and reporting that only PDE projects have.

To convert Java into PDE projects, select File>New>Other... and choose "Plug-in Development" category in the wizard. After selecting  "Convert Java to Plug-in Projects" wizard and pressing Next, the following wizard will appear:

"Convert Java Projects" wizard

The wizard will list all Java projects that do not have PDE capability. Candidate projects do not need to have manifest files. If they are missing, PDE will create generic ones you can use as a starting point. Files that already exist will be left intact. As an option, you can re-compute the build path in the process. If your project has a classpath you want preserved, deselect this checkbox.

 
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