06-09-2005 I had previously installed Eclipse version 3.1.0, but Sander said that a better version can be found that includes the "Web Tools Platform" (WTP). Start at www.eclipse.org follow the "downloads" link on the left-hand side panel, Scroll down to the "Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project" section, and - Follow the "Downloads" link to get the zip file. On 6-9-2005, they had version 1.0M4 Available April 29, 2005, which included all the packages it needed (almost), including 1) The Eclipse SDK v3.1M6 2) EMF 3) GEF v3.1M6 4) JEM This gave me a 165MB, 5,910-file, wtp-eclipse-emf-gef-jem-sdk-1.0M4[1].zip, which unzipped at eclipse\... After unzipping (insuring your unzip target is "C:\", not "C:"), the new plugins directory has 5,764 files instead of the 1,271 the plain, vanilla Eclipse plugin directory had. Installed this version of Eclipse at C:\eclipse. - On the WTP "community" page under the "WTP Tutorials" section, are two interesting tutorials I'll have to go through: * "Servlet Creation and Deployment on Tomcat Tutorial" (ServletScenario.html) says it needs XDoclet 1.2.2, a Tomcat server, and JDK 1.4.2, so I got and installed all 3. 1) XDoclet version 1.2.2 (not the latest version 1.2.3) from http://xdoclet.sourceforge.net installing it at C:\Program Files\xdoclet-1.2.2 2) Tomcat from http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat and to match what we're running in EDC, I got version 5.5.9, which required J2SE 5.0 (although http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-5.5-doc/RELEASE-NOTES.txt says you can use J2SE 1.4 if you install the "compat" package, which gets you jmx.jar (Java Management Extensions) and xercesImpl.jar (Xerces XML Parser), but I didn't install that). I installed Tomcat at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.5 3) JDK 1.4.2. I installed this at C:\Program Files\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_08 * "Building and Running a Web Application" (wtp-tutorial-I.html) which needs J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition, so I got that, too, installing it at C:\Program Files\Java\j2eesdk1.4 Note that J2EE = J2SE + some extra functions (servlets, EJB, JDBC ...) - See the C:\eclipse\readme\readme_eclipse.html down in the section titled "4. Running Eclipse" for the details on how to set up a desktop shortcut to start eclipse. Mine is C:\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm c:\Progra~1\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_08\bin\javaw -vmargs -Xmx256M - The "Building and Running a Web Application" (wtp-tutorial-I.html) page from the WTP "community" page talks about customizing the Eclipse environment, 1) Set Java preferences: Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs Should have Default = jdk1.4.2_08 -> C:\Program Files\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_08 = Standard VM jdk1.5.0_03 -> C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_03 = Standard VM J2EEsdk1.4 -> C:\Program Files\Java\j2eesdk1.4\jdk = Standard VM 2) Choose a Server Runtime Environment: Window -> Preferences -> Server -> Installed Runtimes should have * an Apache -> Apache Tomcat v5.5 named "Apache Tomcat 5.5" installed at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.5 (Note the JRE is jre1.5.0_03 since Tomcat 5.5 requires Java 1.5) * and a Basic -> J2EE Runtime Library named "J2EE Runtime Library" installed at C:\Program Files\Java\j2eesdk1.4 and the JRE = "Workbench default JRE" (this'll get jdk1.4.2_08, I hope) I don't know which one should be marked the default, but I chose this one. (I also found and set the J2EE Annotations -> XDoclet to be Version 1.2.2 and the XDoclet Home: = C:\Program Files\xdoclet-1.2.2) ======================================================================================== To create a trivial Java program, 1) First Create a Java Project File -> New -> Project... -> Java Project Project name: = Java Book 2) Create a Source Code Folder File -> New -> Source Folder Folder name: = Chapter 1 3) Create Java Program either A) From Scratch File -> New -> File Name: = Factorial.java Input Complete Factorial program from page 9 or B) With Help From a Class Template File -> New -> Class Name: = HelloWorld For "What method stubs would you like to create?", choose "public static void main(String[] args)" Replace that "//TODO" line with "System.out.println("Hello world!");" 5) Establish the Program's Arguments and Run it Run -> Run... -> Arguments = 5 (or some integer) -> Run That "Run" button (the green, circled triangle) doesn't run whatever program you currently have in the editor window like I think makes sense. No, it reruns the last program you ran, which doesn't make any sense at all. You can click that black triangle right next to it to drop down a menu so you can reselect which program you want to run. ======================================================================================== See the Webtools project home page at http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/main.html and their Getting started page at http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/testtutorials/gettingstarted/GettingStarted.html and their Tutorials page at http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/community/community.html#tutorials There are two in particular on that tutorials page that seemed interesting, - Servlet Creation and Deployment on Tomcat Tutorial - Building and Running a Web Application ======================================================================================== The ServletScenario tutorial is wrong. See their bugzilla bug #96147 I worked through this a bit, but the last relevant thing in that bug was 4: Attempt to create a new J2EE project. According to the tutorial's instructions enter Select New->J2EE Web Project Problem 2: There is no J2EE Web Project. There is something called a J2EE Web Module (my understanding is that a Module is not a Project), whose dialog box appears similar but not identical to the box shown in the Tutorial. For one thing, the Module dialog box asks for an associated project (none was created). It does not allow the Servlet Version selection as indicated in the tutorial -- unless the so-called "module version" shown on the "Advanced" dialog is the same as the "servlet version" shown in the tutorial. Apparently, the correct method of creating a dynamic web "project" is to first create something called a "flexible project", then to create various J2EE modules to be associated with that project. The tutorial mentions nothing about a flexible project, but speaks in detail about "Dynamic Web" projects.