Friday, May 23, 2008

Useful Eclipse Plugins

Get the latest version of Eclipse IDE and you'll automatically get a lot of goodies. However, you'll soon realize that you've just opened the jar and there's a lot more out there. Some of it is free, some requires moolah to come out of your pocket.
Since I'm cheap, I'm mostly looking at what's free :).
For a web developer I find that Eclipse provides a solid base, but you can add some plugins:
  • Spket JavaScript 1.6.12 (or later) - www.spket.com - this is a fantastic JavaScript plugin that "knows" the most important AJAX libraries out there, including my favourite: ExtJS.
  • Aptana JS plugin (or Aptana IDE) - this is another great way to edit and debug javascript for you web application. However, Spket does code completion a little better.
  • UMLet - www.umlet.com - unlike TogetherJ this is light and nimble and it helps with creating some basic UML diagrams. There is no code synchronization, but who cares?
  • SemmleCode - www.semmle.com - this is a pretty smart tool for analyzing your code. It does need a database though ...
  • X-Ray Software Visualization - http://atelier.inf.unisi.ch/~malnatij/xray.php - package dependency, complexity and much more.
  • Do you also do some project management? Then you could use ProjectKoach - www.projectkoach.com - and you don't have to leave eclipse environment for this.
  • BEA Weblogic Server Tools - https://dev2devclub.bea.com/updates/wls-tools/ - this will allow you to control your Weblogic domain from eclipse.

Obviously there's much more out there.

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