Eclipse Project Photon (4.8) M3 - New and Noteworthy

Regarding usage of newer DirectoryDialog on Windows: In the old DirectoryDialog, we used to have the option to set a text message to specify the purpose of the DirectoryDialog using DirectoryDialog#setMessage(String). This functionality is no more possible with the newer DirectoryDialog.

Hence, revisit the usage of DirectoryDialog.setMessage(String) in your projects, and if needed elaborate the Title field of DirectoryDialog using DirectoryDialog.setText(String) method.

Note: Recommend to use a minimal set of words in the Title field of DirectoryDialog and avoid making it look clumsy.

The buttons are not available by default. They can be added via Window > Perspective > Customize Perspective...:

• The Eclipse compiler for Java (ECJ) implements all the new Java 9 language enhancements
• Updated significant features to support Java Modules, such as compiler, search and many editor features.

Note: It is not mandatory to run Eclipse with Java Runtime 9 to get the Java 9 support. However, a Java runtime 9 is required to be on a project's build path to compile a modular project against the system modules.

• When a Java Runtime 9 is added to a project's build path, the system modules are listed under the System library in the package explorer:

  

• An existing non-modular Java project can be quickly converted to a module by creating a module-info.java for that project. This feature can be availed once the project has been moved to compliance 9:

  

• With Java 9 support, a library or a container can now be added to the module path as opposed to the classpath:

  

• Once an entry has been added to a project's module path, its contents and encapsulation properties can further be modified by double-clicking on the Is modular node (or using the Edit button while Is modular is selected):

  • On the Contents tab individual modules inside a container like JRE System Library can be included or excluded by moving the module from left-to-right or vice versa. Modules shown in the lower right box are implicitly included, because they are required by one or more modules in the upper right box.

    

  • On the Details tab the encapsulation of given modules can be further influenced. The following example shows how module module.one can be made to export one of its packages to the module of the current Java project:

    

  • Toggling Defines one or more modules (see above screenshot) lets you specify whether a given regular (non-modular) jar file or project should be considered as an "automatic module". As a consequence of changes here, the entry will move to the Modulepath or Classpath accordingly.

• Java search now includes a new search scope - Module:

  

• When a Java Runtime 9 is added to a project's build path, the launch configurations are created with "Dependencies" tab and not the old "Classpath" tab.

  User can change the JRE of launch configuration and on the confirmation, the tab changes from "Classpath" to "Dependencies" or vice versa.

  

  If Java project is modular and module is described in module_info.java, most of the dependencies will be defined in the Modular Entries.

  

  If Java project is not modular, most of the dependencies will be defined in the Classpath Entries.

  

• A new quick fix is offered on import statements to fix issues that are reported due to missing module dependency

  This QuickFix is applicable if the project is a Java9 project and has a module-info.java.

  The quick fix can be invoked from the editor:

  

  Before the quickFix is applied the module-info file looks as below

  

  After the quickfix is invoked, module-info.java will be updated to include requires 'MODULE_NAME'

  

• A new quick fix is available when you have an unresolved type in a Java file. If the unresolved type can be found in a java9 module, a quick fix will be available to add an import type entry to your file reporting the error and add the required module dependency to module-info.java file.

  This QuickFix is applicable if the project is a Java9 project and has a module-info.java file.

  The quick fix can be invoked from the editor:

  

  Before the quickFix is applied, the module-info file looks as below

  

  After the quickfix is invoked, module-info.java will be updated to include requires 'MODULE_NAME'

  

  After the quickFix is applied, the required import statement is added to the file reporting error

  

• A new quick fix is available when you have an unresolved type on service provider in a provides directive in module-info.java file. If the unresolved type can not be found in the current module, a quick fix will be available to create a new class or an interface in the current module.

  This QuickFix is applicable if the project is a Java9 project and has a module-info.java file.

  The quick fix can be invoked from the editor:

  

  

  When the service is a class, the quick fix is proposed for creating a class.

  When the service is an interface or an annotation, two quick fixes are proposed for creating a class or an interface.

If the package already has a package-info.java, the quick fix can be invoked from the editor:

Otherwise, the quickfix must be invoked from the problems view, and will create a package-info.java with the required annotation:

When invoked from the problems view, both variations of the quick fix can fix the problem for multiple packages simultaneously.

Advanced source lookup affects debug launches only and can be enabled or disabled with Java > Debug > Enable advanced source lookup preference option:

Note that folders already configured as Eclipse projects (already containing a .project file) will be imported "as it" and won't be reconfigured by PDE.

An example for a use case are updates to a progress monitor, like in EGit's Import Project wizard. This wizard scans a directory and report any found file to the progress (actually a org.eclipse.jface.wizard.ProgressMonitorPart). This happens so fast that it can't be read, but overall it degrades the wizard's performance.

public class ProgressMonitorPart extends Composite implements
        IProgressMonitorWithBlocking {
    [...]
    private Throttler throttledUpdate;
    [...]
    throttledUpdate = new Throttler(fLabel.getDisplay(), Duration.ofMillis(100), this::updateLabel);
    [...]
    protected void queueUpdateLabel() {
       throttledUpdate.throttledExec();
    }
      

If the current selection cannot be adapted (all adapter factories return null), the contribution to Generic Editor is ignored.

The JDT project already contributes such an adapter.