Eclipse Update Site for
Web Tools Platform (WTP)

This update site provides the features of the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP).

It not only provides the data for WTP updates, it also provides "pointers" to the prerequisite projects (EMF, GEF, and JEM).

It does assume, however, that the starting point is the Eclipse 3.1.1 base platform (including JDT) since WTP 1.0 requires Eclipse base 3.1.1, and there are some separate and specific instructions for updating the base platform to the 3.1.1 level.

To use this update site in your existing installation of Eclipse, add the following URL as a remote update site in your update manager.

    http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates/

Tip: any time you get a chance, export your bookmark files from the "add a site" dialog. Having them saved away in a safe place makes it much easier to re-create another development environment.

See Eclipse Help for general information about using Update Manager.

Tip: To lessen download time (by installing the minimum number of features), first select the desired WTP feature in the Eclipse update install dialog, then use the 'select required' button to select only the minimum required prerequisite features.

Known Problems and Issues

Please note: In the interest of openness, and honesty, :) we are not greatly experienced with update manager and we have not tested it rigorously. Therefore, it is recommend you be sure to keep a back up of your workspace and development environment in case something goes wrong. In fact, if you are able, it may be easiest to start a fresh development environment based on 3.1.1 and then update to WTP 1.0. And, since the workbench may have to shutdown and restart several times (if updating several features), I'd recommend you do the upgrade with an empty workspace and once satisfied all is well, then use the -data option to point to your workspace of interest.

bug 122784:   Even if you have WTP 0.7.1 installed, you can not "search for updates of the currently installed features".

Workaround: add the webtools/update site as a remote update site and use it as you would any other new feature. You may avoid other problems if you start "afresh".

bug 108376:   if you already do have 0.7.1 installed, and select all of WTP to install, Update Manager will think some features are not available (even though they are available and in fact already installed!).

Workaround: in some tests, just selecting the first 3 of the 4 WTP Features to install seemed to fix, but may vary depending on exactly what you have installed.

bug 123191:   If you check "Filter features included in other features on the list", then even using the 'select required' button will not "find" all the features required.

Workaround: do not check that box! :)

As always, open bugs you find or open feature requests, to help the project improve. Thanks for your help.

Example of Update Dialog

Here is an example screen shot highlighting the areas discussed in the tips and workarounds. The example is from having just the base 3.1.1 installed.