how to build eclipse rcp application from .product

Question

I'd like to build an Eclipse RCP application.

I have a Product configuration file and a target platform with lots of third party plugins. The export from the Eclipse IDE works flawlessly. But that is hardly professional. So I'd like to get it to work on Jenkins, too. The build server gets the files from SVN, doesn't have Eclipse and should do it all headlessly anyway.

I do not want to use Maven/Tycho or Buckminster. I'd like to do it a simple as possible. Since I know a bit about ant already, I would like to do it all with ant. I have an ant script with which I can build all my plugins. All I need right now, is to assemble them all into the product with a launcher (.exe) and such. Like the export wizard does. But without the Eclipse IDE.

I've been googling my fingers off, but somehow it appears as if I'm the only one who wants do build an Eclipse RCP product with ant. I only find tutorials that are from 2005 or that go so much in depth, a newbie (like me) doesn't get past the first paragraph.

Please help!

Answer 1

I've been down this road you are on. Trust me... you will end up with something incredibly more complicated with Ant than you would if you just use Tycho/Maven. You said you want it simple as possible, and IMHO, Tycho is it.

There are examples here... http://wiki.eclipse.org/Tycho/Packaging_Types

I also suggest to check out tycho from git and look around the tycho-demo location. They have great examples there too.

http://git.eclipse.org/c/tycho/org.eclipse.tycho.git/tree/tycho-demo/itp04-rcp

Plus, Jenkins is super easy when dealing with Maven builds.

The current version of Tycho is 0.13.0. It's pretty early in it's life, and under active development, so it's getting better every day.

Answer 2

If you really want ant, check PDE build.

However, I really recommend using Tycho instead. It makes building an Eclipse RCP a lot easier.