How can we automatically disable an Eclipse plug-in on target platforms?

Question

We have developed an Eclipse plug-in called CodingSpectator that collects some data about the usage of various Java development tools in Eclipse. This data helps us better understand how developers use Eclipse and how we can improve Eclipse to better suit the needs of programmers. CodingSpectator captures data from every workspace that is opened in Eclipse. Some of our users develop RCP applications or Eclipse plug-ins. Therefore, they run new instances of Eclipse from their main instance of Eclipse. However, we don't want CodingSpectator to collect data from the target platforms (new instances of Eclipse opened from within the main Eclipse). So, we instruct our users to configure their target platform to exclude CodingSpectator (See http://codingspectator.cs.illinois.edu/resources/documentation/user-guide.html#htoc6). But, configuring the target platform manually is not convenient. And, we are looking for better ways to stop capturing data from target platforms.

How can we automatically disable CodingSpectator on the target platforms of our users?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '11 at 22:00

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One way could be to look for the -dev application argument. This argument is always added by PDE when launching an application from within Eclipse.

answered Jun 20 '11 at 22:00

Tonny Madsen

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How can I set the argument? How can I make sure that the argument is always set? – reprogrammer Jun 20 '11 at 22:02
Hmm... maybe I misunderstood you. I though you just wanted to detect if you have been launched from within Eclipse. And for this you can use Platform.getApplicationArgs() and search for "-dev".. – Tonny Madsen Jun 20 '11 at 22:05
Thanks for the clarification. Your suggestion seems promising. I'll give it a try. – reprogrammer Jun 20 '11 at 22:11
`Platform.getApplicationArgs() ` returns an empty array when I run a new instance of Eclipse from within my instance of Eclipse. – reprogrammer Jun 21 '11 at 19:46
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Found it :-) Check out Platform.inDevelopmentMode() – Tonny Madsen Jun 21 '11 at 20:29

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '11 at 20:05

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I used Platform.inDevelopmentMode() to determine if the instance Eclipse is run from within another instance of Eclipse.

answered Jun 21 '11 at 20:05

reprogrammer

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 20 '11 at 19:28

For at least RCP applications, it's likely that a target has already been defined, for stability across a team and a release.

But for those cases where someone wants to test a plug-in using the developer's version of Eclipse, perhaps you could provide a utility to make the target.

A target can be defined by a file in a project. You could provide a utility that generates the file. All the user would have to do would be:

Run your utility
Refresh the project (if necessary).
Open the generated target file in the Target Editor.
[OPTIONAL] Modify the generated target further.
Click on the "Set as Target Platform" link in the upper-left of the Target Editor.

We're looking for a fully automatic solution. Your answer is a step forward but doesn't fully resolve the issue. — reprogrammer, Jun 20 '11 at 19:32

How can we automatically disable an Eclipse plug-in on target platforms?

3 Answers3