Before a 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
Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
Click File > New > Project > Plug-in Development > Feature Project. The New
Feature wizard opens.
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.
Click Next.
On the Referenced Plug-ins and Fragments page,
select the check box for each plug-in that you want to add.
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.
Close the Feature Manifest editor.
Adding a plug-in to an existing feature
Procedure
Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
In the Package Explorer, expand the
feature.
Right-click the feature.xml file and
click Open With > Feature
Manifest Editor.
For each plug-in that you want to add:
Click the Plug-ins tab.
Click Add. The Plug-in
Selection window opens.
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.
In the Matching items list, select
the plug-in that you want to add to the feature.
Click OK. The
plug-in is added to the feature.
To update any information that pertains to the plug-in
that you just added, click the appropriate tab and make the updates.
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 changed.
Close the editor.
Updating a plug-in in a feature
Procedure
To update a plug-in in a feature with a more recent version:
Open the Plug-in Development perspective.
In the Package Explorer, expand the
feature.
Right-click the feature.xml file and
click Open With > Feature
Manifest editor. The editor
opens and displays the feature information.
Click the Plug-ins tab.
To delete the old version of the plug-in from the feature,
right-click the old version of the plug-in, and click Delete.
Add the new version of the plug-in to the feature, as described
in the preceding topic.