Adding a plug-in to a feature

Before a custom rule plug-in can be installed, it must be added to a feature. The feature contains additional information about the plug-in that is required by the update application. A single feature can contain multiple plug-ins, fragments, and other files.

Adding a plug-in to a new feature

Procedure

  1. Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
  2. Click File > New > Project > Plug-in Development > Feature Project. The New Feature wizard opens.
  3. On the Feature Properties page, complete the following fields:
    Project name
    Type a name for the feature project.
    Feature ID
    Type an ID for the feature itself. The default value is the feature project name.
    Feature name
    Type a name for the feature. The default value is the feature project name.
    Feature version
    Enter a valid version ID. The default value is 1.0.0.qualifier.
  4. Click Next.
  5. On the Referenced Plug-ins and Fragments page, select the check box for each plug-in that you want to add.
  6. Click Finish. The wizard creates the feature plug-in project, adds it to the Package Explorer, and opens the feature.xml file in the Feature Manifest editor.
  7. Close the Feature Manifest editor.

Adding a plug-in to an existing feature

Procedure

  1. Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
  2. In the Package Explorer, expand the feature.
  3. Right-click the feature.xml file and click Open With > Feature Manifest Editor.
  4. For each plug-in that you want to add:
    1. Click the Plug-ins tab.
    2. Click Add. The Plug-in Selection window opens.
    3. In the input field, type a few sequential characters from the name of the plug-in. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard character, but only as part of a character string. The asterisk (*) when not combined with any other characters does not match anything.
    4. In the Matching items list, select the plug-in that you want to add to the feature.
    5. Click OK. The plug-in is added to the feature.
    6. To update any information that pertains to the plug-in that you just added, click the appropriate tab and make the updates.
  5. To update the version of the feature itself, click the Overview tab and enter the new version information in the Version field. You can update the version number to indicate that the contents of the feature have changed.
  6. Close the editor.

Updating a plug-in in a feature

Procedure

To update a plug-in in a feature with a more recent version:

  1. Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
  2. In the Package Explorer, expand the feature.
  3. Right-click the feature.xml file and click Open With > Feature Manifest editor. The editor opens and displays the feature information.
  4. Click the Plug-ins tab.
  5. To delete the old version of the plug-in from the feature, right-click the old version of the plug-in, and click Delete.
  6. Add the new version of the plug-in to the feature, as described in Adding a plug-in to an existing feature.

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