Eclipse Tool Template

The following describe how to set up a Processing tool project in Eclipse and build it successfully, and to make your tool ready for distribution.

1. Download the latest Eclipse template from [here](http://code.google.com/p/processing/downloads/list here). Don't unzip the ZIP file yet.
2. Create a new Java project in Eclipse.

• From the menubar choose File → New → Java Project.
• Give the project the name of your tool.
• Click Finish.

1. Import the template source files.

• Right-click (ctrl-click) onto the folder icon of your newly created project in the Package Explorer and choose Import from the menu that pops up.
• Select General → Archive File, click Next and navigate to the ZIP file you downloaded earlier in step 1.
• Confirm the archive with Finish.

1. Add Processing to the project build path.

• Open your project's Properties window.
• Under Java Build Path, select the Libraries tab and then Add External JARs...
• Locate and add Processing's pde.jar to your build path. If you're planning on using features of Processing's PApplet class, you'll need to add core.jar to the project's build path as well. It is recommended to make copies of core.jar and pde.jar in your Eclipse workspace in a folder called libs. If this folder does not exist yet, create it. Read the section below regarding where to find the core.jar and pde.jar files.
• Confirm the setup with OK.

1. Edit the tool properties.

• Open the resources folder inside of your Java project and double-click the build.properties file. You should see its contents in the Eclipse editor.
• Edit the properties file, making changes to items (1) to (4) so that the values and paths are properly set for your project to compile. A path can be relative or absolute.
• Make changes to items under (5). These are metadata used in the automatically generated HTML, README, and .properties documents.

1. Compile your library using Ant.

• From the menu bar, choose Window → Show View → Ant. A tab with the title "Ant" will pop up on the right side of your Eclipse editor.
• Drag the resources/build.xml file in there, and a new item "ProcessingTools" will appear.
• Press the "Play" button inside the Ant tab.

1. BUILD SUCCESSFUL. The tool template will start to compile, control messages will appear in the console window, warnings can be ignored. When finished it should say BUILD SUCCESSFUL. Congratulations, you are set and you can start writing your own library by making changes to the source code in folder src.
2. BUILD FAILED. In case the compile process fails, check the output in the console which will give you a closer idea of what went wrong. Errors may have been caused by

• Incorrect path settings in the build.properties file. Things are most likely to go wrong at item (2) (line 24 in build.properties), where you specify the path to pde.jar and other included JARs.
• Error "Javadoc failed". If you are on Windows, make sure you are using a JDK instead of a JRE in order to be able to create the javadoc for your tool. JRE does not come with the javadoc application, but it is required to create tools from this template.

After having compiled and built your project successfully, you should be able to find your tool in Processing's sketchbook folder, examples will be listed in Processing's sketchbook menu. Files that have been created for the distribution of the tool are located in your Eclipse's workspace/yourProject/distribution folder. In there you will also find the web folder which contains the documentation, a ZIP file for downloading your tool, a folder with examples as well as the index.html and CSS file.

To distribute your tool please refer to the ToolGuidelines.

Source code

If you want to share your tool's source code (and we know you do), we recommend to use an online repository available for free at Google Code or GitHub.

Adding pde.jar and other .jar files to your classpath

The pde.jar file contains classes responsible for creating the Processing Development Environment itself. It must be part of your classpath when building a tool. The core.jar file does not necessarily need to be added to your classpath, however, you will need to include it if you plan on creating any external tool windows based on PApplet. On Windows and Linux, these files are located in the Processing distribution folder inside a folder named "lib". On Mac OS X, right-click Processing.app and use Show Package Contents to see the guts. The lib folder is at Contents → Resources → Java → lib. For further information about the classes in pde.jar, you can see the source here and the developer documentation here.

If you created a libs folder as described above, put the libraries you need to add to your classpath in there. In the Properties of your Java project, navigate to Java Build Path → Libraries, and click Add External JARs. Select the .jar files from the libs folder that are required for compiling you project. Adjust the build.properties file accordingly.

The libs folder is recommended but not a requirement, nevertheless you need to specify where your jar files are located in your system in order to add them to the classpath.

In case a tool depends on systems libraries, put these dependencies next to the jar file. For example processing's opengl.jar library depends on JOGL hence the DLLs (for Windows) or jnilibs (for OS X) have to be located next to the opengl.jar file.

The JDK, the JRE, Ant, & javadoc

For more information about these, see these sections in the Eclipse Library Template document.