Managing and Uninstalling plugins

This document explains you how to verify which plugins are installed on your machine, and how to disable or uninstall plugins that you are not using.

This is important to manage the amount of disk space that Eclipse uses and because the Eclipse UI tends to become cluttered when many plugins are installed. A large number of plugins may also make your Eclipse environment less stable. In general, if you are not using a plugin, it is a good idea to disable it.

Disabling a plugin means that it will not be loaded when Eclipse starts. Disabling a plugin is equivalent to uninstaling it, except that the plugin is still available on your hard drive in case you want to reinstall it later.

Reviewing installed plugins

It is easy to verify which plugins are currently installed on your installation of EasyEclipse. Select the menu item Help -> Software Update -> Manage Configuration, as shown here:



(Note that the screenshots have been done on Mac OS X, but the behavior is similar on other platforms).

Selecting this menu item opens the Distributions Configuration dialog. You can resize the left pane, and expand the tree, to see all the installed components, as shown here:



Note that you have to expand the tree: in EasyEclipse, each plugin is install in a separate folder and appears in a different branch of the tree view. We will fix this in the coming version.

Disabling EasyEclipse Plugins

It is a good idea to disable or uninstall the plugins that you do not use.

It will avoid cluttering the User Interface (too many buttons, menus, views...); it will make Eclipse's behavior easier to understand (in particular, in selecting which editor opens a document type). It will also improve the performance and "snappiness" of Eclipse.

Even more importantly, it will avoid potential problems with plugin conflicts, bugs, crashes...



To disable a plugin:

  • Open the Product Configuration dialog as described in the previous section,
  • Find the plugin that you want to disable, by expanding the tree on the left pane,
  • Right-click on the item (or on the parent folder: this is equivalent) and select Disable:




  • Note that if all plugins from the original distribution appear under the first directory. To disable a plugin from the original distribution, expand the first directory, and disable only that plugin:



  • Select Yes in the confirmation dialog,
  • Select Yes in the dialog asking you to restart Eclipse.
When Eclipse restarts, you may get an error such as Workbench failed to restore its state. This may happen if a re-opened document was relying on the plugin for its display. Those errors are innocuous. Once you have closed and reopened the document, the problem should not occur anymore.

Later, you can re-enable a plugin if you need it. To re-enable a plugin, execute the following steps:

  • Open the Product Configuration dialog, as described in the previous section,
  • Show the disabled plugins by pushing the "Show Disabled Features" button:




  • Find the plugin that you want to enable, by expanding the tree on the left pane, as described in the previous section,
  • Right-click on the disabled item and select Ensable,
  • Select Yes in the confirmation dialog,
  • Select Yes in the dialog asking you to restart Eclipse.

Uninstalling EasyEclipse Plugins

On Windows

Plugins can be uninstalled through the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel. However, it is a good idea to disable the plugins before uninstalling them.

On Mac OS X and Linux

Once you have disabled the plugins, you can simply delete the folder that contains them. On Mac OS X, this folder is located in /Applications/EasyEclipse Extensions/1.2/.

Uninstalling EasyEclipse Distributions

On Windows

Distributions can be uninstalled through the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

Uninstalling a distribution also uninstalls all the plugins it contains.

On Mac OS X and Linux

To uninstall, you can simply delete (send to the trash) the folder or icon for EasyEclipse.

Uninstalling a distribution does not remove the plugins that you have added to it. You can remove those plugins as described in the previous section.

18 Comments »

Comment by luke
2007-04-30 19:14:53

What about a guide for installing non-EasyEclipse plugins into an EasyEclipse distribution? E.g., PDT and Xdebug plugins?

Comment by Francois
2007-08-31 01:28:01

Installing non-EasyEclipse plugins should work in most cases, within the limitation of the Update Manager, that has a few issues.

We would be actually interested in any feedback on plugins that you succeed or fail at installing !

 
 
Comment by Christian
2007-07-18 22:41:07

I’m trying to install the Subclipse plugin but keep getting the error:

Eclipse Tools (3.2.2) requires plug-in “org.eclipse.emf.codegen.ecore.ui”

Can’t seem to locate this plugin and move beyond the error.

Comment by admin
2007-07-19 08:37:53

This is a bug. Could you enter one @ http://sourceforge.net/projects/easyeclipse
Could you also tell me which distro you run? (version/os)
Also how are you trying to install or uninstall subclipse ?

Comment by Hannes
2007-08-12 13:18:44

I’m trying zu install Groovy plugin and get the same error message:

Eclipse Tools (3.2.2) requires plug-in “org.eclipse.emf.codegen.ecore.ui”

Any ideas?

Comment by Francois
2007-08-31 01:26:11

Today’s release should fix the issue (1.2.2.2). Please tell me if you still have the problem… thanks.

 
 
 
Comment by chuck
2007-08-27 08:34:32

I, too, am getting this bug when trying to install these plugins:
* http://www.bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features/
(QuickREx regular expression tester, XPath-Developer, etc)
* viPlugin (http://www.satokar.com)

Also, after the message comes up, trying to check or un-check plugins from the list causes a NullPointerException alert to appear.

What’s the current status of this? Is there a fix or update?

Comment by chuck
2007-08-27 08:48:38

I suppose I should give you the details. I just installed EasyEclipse earlier today:

EasyEclipse for LAMP

Version: 1.2.2
Based on Eclipse build id: M20070212-1330

running on Windows XP

Comment by chuck
2007-08-27 09:06:10

More to report: after reading this:
http://blog.thembid.com/index.php/2007/07/27/the-dreamweaver-umbilical-cord-cutt
ing-loose/ I decided to try actually installing the “missing” Eclipse Tools and
Eclipse Modeling Tools plugins through Software Updates. After adding the sites
and clicking Finish, I got another error: “Network connection problems
encountered during search.” Here’s what was under “Details”:
Network connection problems encountered during search.
Unable to access
“http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/plugins/eclipse-modeling.html”.
Error parsing site stream. [The declaration for the entity “ContentType”
must end with ‘>’.]
Error parsing site stream. [The declaration for the entity “ContentType”
must end with ‘>’.]
Unable to access “http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/plugins/eclipse-tools.html”.
Error parsing site stream. [The declaration for the entity “ContentType”
must end with ‘>’.]
Error parsing site stream. [The declaration for the entity “ContentType”
must end with ‘>’.]

Comment by Francois
2007-08-28 15:20:09

Thank you for following up - the update manager error is unrelated however.

I’ve been working on doing a new release of the distros that have this problem, and hopefully will have them ready tomorrow… thank you for your patience…

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by andy koch
2007-08-13 14:02:35

I get this same error when trying to install the Perforce plugin. Which installed w/o trouble on 1.2.1 Rails distro.

Now “upgraded” to 1.2.2 LAMP, running on Mac OS

Comment by Francois
2007-08-31 01:28:46

Please try 1.2.2.2, should now be OK.

 
 
Comment by Jungli
2007-08-23 12:12:02

I had the same issue with installing the Aptana plugin on EasyEclipse for LAMP 1.2.2.
I found the solution on the EasyEclipse/Eclipse Tools page:
http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/plugins/eclipse-tools.html

Here it states that:
“The EMF and JEM libraries have been patched for simplicity, to removed all User interface (Wizards, Editors) that could be misleading to beginning users. If you need those functionalities, simply use the Eclipe Modeling Tools plugin, or, simplier to install, the Plugin Warrior distribution.”

After installing the Eclipse Modeling Tools plugin the dependency for “org.eclipse.emf.codegen.ecore.ui” should be satisfied and installation will proceed.

Comment by Francois
2007-08-31 01:30:21

Yes, installing Eclipse Modeling Tools was a workaround. But the new release should fix it in all cases.

 
 
Comment by Ouza
2007-08-30 08:08:34

I installed Eclipse 3.1.2,
I tried to install Subclipse by following these steps:
==>Load eclipse
==>help
==>software update
==>find and install
==>search for new feature to install
==>new remote site
==>Name: Subclipse 1.0.x
==>URL: http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.0.x
==>check Subclipse

At this end I don’t have any more option than to cancel, the other options (back, next, finish) are disabled.
Can somebody help me?
I also tried to remove Eclipse and to re-install it again, but I always get the same problem.

Merci!!

Comment by Francois
2007-08-30 23:23:14

Subclipse is included in all the EasyEclipse distributions; so if you take any of them from the distro page, you won’t have to install anything else… that should solve it :)

 
 
Comment by Chris
2007-09-09 21:52:45

I’m receiving an “Unable to create view: An unexpected exception was thrown.” error within the Breakpoints pane of Debug. I’m running EasyEclipse 1.2.2.2 with the EPIC plugin. Has anyone else experience this? Thank you in advance.

Below is the full error:
Unable to create view: An unexpected exception was thrown.
java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.io.File.(Unknown Source)
at org.python.pydev.debug.model.PyBreakpoint.getPythonNature(PyBreakpoint.java:99)
at org.python.pydev.debug.model.PyBreakpoint.getFunctionName(PyBreakpoint.java:179)
at org.python.pydev.debug.model.PyDebugModelPresentation.getText(PyDebugModelPresentation.java:99)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.LazyModelPresentation.getText(LazyModelPresentation.java:163)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.DelegatingModelPresentation.getText(DelegatingModelPresentation.java:162)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.breakpoints.BreakpointsLabelProvider.getText(BreakpointsLabelProvider.java:86)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.breakpoints.BreakpointsSorter.compare(BreakpointsSorter.java:92)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ViewerComparator$1.compare(ViewerComparator.java:184)
at java.util.Arrays.mergeSort(Unknown Source)
at java.util.Arrays.sort(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ViewerComparator.sort(ViewerComparator.java:182)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.getSortedChildren(AbstractTreeViewer.java:565)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.updateChildren(AbstractTreeViewer.java:2337)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.internalRefreshStruct(AbstractTreeViewer.java:1651)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.TreeViewer.internalRefreshStruct(TreeViewer.java:955)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.internalRefresh(AbstractTreeViewer.java:1627)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.internalRefresh(AbstractTreeViewer.java:1582)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractTreeViewer.internalRefresh(AbstractTreeViewer.java:1568)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer$7.run(StructuredViewer.java:1388)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.preservingSelection(StructuredViewer.java:1323)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.CheckboxTreeViewer.preservingSelection(CheckboxTreeViewer.java:371)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.refresh(StructuredViewer.java:1386)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.refresh(StructuredViewer.java:1345)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.breakpoints.BreakpointsViewer.refresh(BreakpointsViewer.java:125)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ContentViewer.setLabelProvider(ContentViewer.java:281)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.setLabelProvider(StructuredViewer.java:2003)
at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.TreeViewer.setLabelProvider(TreeViewer.java:677)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.breakpoints.BreakpointsView.createViewer(BreakpointsView.java:144)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.AbstractDebugView$ViewerPage.createControl(AbstractDebugView.java:270)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.AbstractDebugView.createDefaultPage(AbstractDebugView.java:358)
at org.eclipse.ui.part.PageBookView.createPartControl(PageBookView.java:473)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.AbstractDebugView.createPartControl(AbstractDebugView.java:319)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.breakpoints.BreakpointsView.createPartControl(BreakpointsView.java:121)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewReference.createPartHelper(ViewReference.java:332)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewReference.createPart(ViewReference.java:197)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPartReference.getPart(WorkbenchPartReference.java:566)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage$ActivationList.setActive(WorkbenchPage.java:3915)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage.restoreState(WorkbenchPage.java:2929)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchWindow.restoreState(WorkbenchWindow.java:1936)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.doRestoreState(Workbench.java:2873)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$14(Workbench.java:2821)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$20.run(Workbench.java:1697)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runStartupWithProgress(Workbench.java:1437)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.restoreState(Workbench.java:1695)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$12(Workbench.java:1666)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$18.run(Workbench.java:1545)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.SafeRunner.run(SafeRunner.java:37)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.restoreState(Workbench.java:1489)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchConfigurer.restoreState(WorkbenchConfigurer.java:183)
at org.eclipse.ui.application.WorkbenchAdvisor.openWindows(WorkbenchAdvisor.java:702)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.init(Workbench.java:1101)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:1863)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:422)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.IDEApplication.run(IDEApplication.java:95)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.PlatformActivator$1.run(PlatformActivator.java:78)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:92)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:68)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:400)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:177)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:336)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:280)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:977)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:952)

 
Comment by Varun
2007-11-14 04:29:43

How do we remove Plugins from Eclipse, like java plugins. I wish to install only plugins related to my company and remove the others present in Eclipse.

Thanks

Varun

 
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