Thursday, October 9, 2008

Eclipse RCP Update Manager

Today, I did tried adding the update manager UI and setting up an update site for my eclipse RCP application. Everything went fine. I did set up the menu item Update->Software Updates. Added my update site and able to locate the new features :) I was happy and believe me its a cool feature eclipse provides. But the moment I selected my new feature under (Select the features to install), the 'Updates' dialog throws the following error :

Resulting configuration does not contain the platform

oops ! I tried debugging this issue for hours. Googled .... and found out that for your Update Manager to work properly you need to have everything as a feature and no-plugins. If you created a product file for your eclipse RCP application with 'plugins' turned on under 'The product configuration is based on:' tab of your product files 'Overview' section, you need to changed the option from 'plugins' to 'fetaures'. Hold on ! You have other things to do ....

I would suggest you to follow the Section 9 - Add Update-Manager to rcpmail of http://www.eclipsecon.org/2005/presentations/EclipseCon2005_Tutorial8.pdf

I got this link from the eclipse RCP FAQ Page - http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/RCP_FAQ#How_can_I_add_the_Eclipse_Update_Manager_to_my_application.3F

Don't give up. It worked for me and definitely it will work for you too.

Write to me if you still find it difficult to make it work. I will help you.

1 comment:

iamchating said...

Hi Anjur

I have also met a problem on this topic. I have developed an RCP Application, which allow the user create their own project and. One import requirement for my application is to support the user to use a code repository (CVS, SVN or so) to control the source of their own project. For there may be several different types of version control systems, and I can not pack the plug-ins (e.g. Subeclipse) into my application due to copyright issues, my idea is that I can open the eclipse update manager to the user and allow user to install their own plug-ins.
I have followed the instructions in the EclipseCon2005_Tutorial8 and added the install and update actions. When I tested the installation any update site (Mylyn,Subeclipse even my own testing update site)using the update manager in my RCP application, I always get the same error as you met. “Resulting configuration does not contain the platform”.
I am new to Eclipse development, and I do not quite understand “find out that for your Update Manager to work properly you need to have everything as a feature and no-plug-ins”. How to do this?
My Application has the following structure:
Eclipse Plug-in Project A (so called PluginA)
Eclipse Plug-in Project B (so called PluginB)
RCP Product Project (so called product project)
The actual business logic is all in PluginA and PluginB, the product project contains just a few initialization code and the configuration files for the RCP application.
My product configuration is based on the “Plug-in” but not “feature”. And currently it references about 500 plug-ins. I do not know how to change it to the “feature” configuration.


Thanks you for your help, and can you get in touch with me by the mail address “tantian$$$gmail.com” ( please replace the $$$ with @)?