[gilesp]

Hi there Guys

I’ve been suing MyEclipse for a while now, and still think it’s fantastic.

One thing that i can’t seem to find is a Manifest editor – something that will allow me to build up a manifest file. Similar to the ‘Java jar dependencies’ option in Websphere Application Developer.

Is this functionality is there somewhere? If not, is it coming, and what do you think the time frames are ?

Keep up the good work.
Regards
Giles

[Riyad Kalla]

Giles,
We don’t offer a manifest editor currently, but I’ll send along the suggestion and see what the devs think.

[gilesp]

Hi Riyad

The reason i’m asking, is that i’m forced to use WASD as a development tool in my company, but i am trying to advocate the use of Eclipse with MyEclispe.

MyEclipse is great for all the hot deployment it can do with the various app servers, but the one thing that it is lacking is some way of keeping the Manifest files in sink, and clearly visiable.

The Manifest file is essential in ensuring ones app works in a J2EE environment. Without one, it is very difficult to see the dependencies a project has on other projects.

Basically…. i want out with WASD… and in with Eclipse and MYEclipse…. but i need to beable to do almost all the J2EE functions using the latter two products

I do know you can’t give everything through. 🙂

Cheers

[Riyad Kalla]

Giles,
Is this functionality you are looking for not covered by the Right Click on EAR Project Node > MyEclipse > Add/Remove Modules dialog?

[gilesp]

Hi Riyad

If you right click, and ‘Add and Remove Modules’, then that edits your application.xml.

What i am looking for is something that you can edit a MANIFEST.MF.

This lists the dependencies of more than just an enterprise application – but for any project / jar / war.

Just out of interest, how does something go from just being a user request, to actually making it into a next release? Do i have to beg really hard 🙂

[Riyad Kalla]

Hmm no I don’t think we support that then. As far as turning a request into a implemented feature its really based on user demand or if a company looking at buying a large number of licenses wants it we will talk with them about requirements and try and get it in.

Now the other way for a single user to get a feature in is to make it as easy as possible on us. For example, point us to a plugin for Eclipse that already does what you want, or ‘almost’ already does what you want. Let us know what the licensing for that plugin is and if the plugin has any flaws of it is ‘just right’. Also we are big on users being very explicit about what they want. Do you want a GUI that lets you drag and drop dependencies? Do you want to just select some items and add check marks next to them, etc.

If this is a brand new feature from scratch then it is likely not going to be addressed until sometime after the 3.9 (not 3.8, but 3.9) time frame as our “must have” list for 3.8 is pretty finalized, and our “I will kill myself without this” list of enhancements to all the new functionalities comming 3.8 will probablly fill our TODO lists for 3.9 along with bug fixes and other tools we are working on internally.

Before I send this in as an enhancement request, the more detailed you can be the better. If you could explain exactly what kind of support you are looking for, I’ll add it to the enhancement request for clarification to the devs (it might turn out to be a trivial thing).

[Curtis J Reinke]

Well. I’d also like to add myself to this list needing this capability. I’m sure that many users that are looking for a lighter weight alternative to WSAD would find this an attractive feature, especially, if they are deploying EARs/WARs, and EJBs following J2EE recommendations. Currently, the recommendation states that you have to update the manifest for each jar used by an EAR or EJB to have those jars visible to these modules. The feature is available in WSAD, but I haven’t tried it as yet to determine its capabilities. I’d like to see the ability to add/update a manifest, extract it from an archive, update it and put it back in one sequence of steps, and show a graph of the classpaths, starting at base archive.

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