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For example, say you have a project checked out from SVN Repository in one workspace, but it contains several projects (either related or not). You switch to a new workspace and do

Window |Perspective | SVN Repository Exploring.

Eclipse has now "forgotten" the repository you were just using. You see a blanks list. And you have to go key in the repository link all over again.

Is there a plugin that will help Eclipse remember a list of repositories between workspaces? (IntelliJ Idea, for instance, does this automatically)?

Thanks!

Edit: I had no intention of destroying the separateness or integrity of a workspace. In fact, that's the whole point. You can't. Invading one workspace with multiple repository artifacts is incredibly confusing.

Nor is it practical to only have "one" workspace. Computers crash while the workspace is in use. People use different IDEs. People check in material that makes a build crash. Workspaces break.

And we have developers who have to use multiple repositories. would like the convenience of having access to multiple repositories. Eclipse is fine when you only have one.

But it also needs to be practical in a multi-project work environment, where other developers in other organizations on a project do not even use Eclipse. And it has not seemed practical in Eclipse to only have one workspace (which clearly was the original "intent"). To make one workspace track all the repositories you're going to use? I can't say.

However, I realize the original intent of Eclipse might not have been to track your repositories for you. But try and recall, when computers were created they were only used to operate on telemetry data, to break codes and to do the things that John Von Neumann's incredibly rich imagination could think up.

The people who originally created Eclipse could not envision that it would be eventually be used to manage for OSGi servers. Or many language: Haskell, Scala Python or Ruby.

Or Maven. Or apparently that a single developer might work on more than one project at the same time and might ever need more than one workspace to successfully manage one project. But we do. No one creating an IDE could possibly think of all the eventual uses that it might be put to, or problems it would face many years into the future.

Thus plugins are created. I was just asking whether there is a plugin that keeps Eclipse competitive in this area. I'm not trying to defeat the whole intent of the IDE, which I would think is to make life easier. Now, I feel like you're telling me that NOT remembering repositories is "tradition" and I'm like Tevya asking

"Would it spoil some vast eternal plan, if we had a persistent SCM repository list?"

But life goes on, a project has its own workflow and build flow and developers have to keep up. The tool we have is Eclipse.

And to keep up it would be nice if Eclipse could somehow retain a list or repositories that I use, and it would be nice to do this in in a coherent way using the Eclipse IDE, and not requiring yet another program to manage this.

If you read this far, thanks for reading.

RichMeister
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2 Answers2

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No, because it is intended to work this way. Workspaces are completely separate. If I have a workspace for e.g. PHP projects why should I pollute its repository browser with repository locations that point to Java projects?

If you want to keep settings you have basically two ways: Either you don't create a new workspace but copy the old workspace folder, rename it and delete unneeded projects (delete from within Eclipse!). This way all your settings (like fonts, perspectives) are preserved.

Or you export / import specific settings. For this: Menu File > Export... / Import... General > Preferences. Then you can select the elements you want to export, including SVN repository locations.

Certainly there is no "live" update between two workspaces. As I said because it is intended to work this way.

Hauke Ingmar Schmidt
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  • Copying a workspace and renaming it is NOT a good idea; workspaces often contain absolute and relative paths that will be invalid if the workspace is moved or renamed. Use File > Export > Preferences instead. – E-Riz Feb 29 '12 at 03:11
  • Not across different computers or to check in, but it is safe on a single computer. Absolute paths are no problem, obviously (and in fact the whole idea is to preserve settings like e.g. the absolute JDK path). Relative paths may be a problem in certain projects that use such relative paths that point to out-of-the-workspace dirs. Luckily I don't deal with such projects so I never had any problems of that kind. And after copying the workspace projects should be deleted, no use to have them in two workspaces. – Hauke Ingmar Schmidt Feb 29 '12 at 03:32
  • Much too much settings like perspective settings aren't exported; I highly prefer copying a workspace. (In fact I have an empty configured workspace around.) Never had any problems with that. – Hauke Ingmar Schmidt Feb 29 '12 at 03:34
  • If by "perspective settings" you mean the layout of your workbench window, then you can duplicate that by using File > Switch Workspace > Other... and defining a new location. That route gives you the option of copying the current Workbench Layout to the new workspace; then you can File > Import the preferences. I don't know of any other preferences that aren't included in Export/Import - if you do, please enter bug reports about it. – E-Riz Feb 29 '12 at 14:54
  • Oh, and creating an empty workspace configured the way you like it (for later copying) is something I used to do also, it was the best option several years ago; but since the Preferences export/import got mature, I just use that all the time now. – E-Riz Feb 29 '12 at 14:56
  • Every plugin's settings that doesn't export all preferences that way are missing. That are a lot, including exotic ones like Maven, Subclipse or STS. Instead of just copying a folder I should follow a special procedure for creation, importing and exporting that leaves me with an *inferior* result? For some relative-path-cargo-cult? Sorry, no. The import/export feature is nice for transferring partial settings. It is a non-feature for the creation of a new workspace. – Hauke Ingmar Schmidt Mar 02 '12 at 13:54
  • STS, who knows what you get with that beast :-) For Eclipse.org projects, if you have specific examples of a Preference not being transferred correctly using Export/Import, please please file bug report(s) about it. I've been using Eclipse on a daily basis for more than 9 years and for quite a while now I move Preferences using Export/Import without any trouble. It works quite well for creation of a new workspace in my experience. – E-Riz Mar 02 '12 at 16:27
  • It doesn't matter for me if the "problematic" plugins are Eclipse.org projects or third party. I use the third party plugins for good reasons. Copying the workspaces guarantees I have a complete setup without any further actions for just everything I configured before. For Eclipse.org plugins: E.g. the Maven installation path is not transferred. Trivial to fix, but still completely unnecessary. – Hauke Ingmar Schmidt Mar 05 '12 at 14:21
  • As long as you go in with your eyes open, you're aware that you are doing something that is not supported and kind of against how workspaces are designed...if it works for you that's fine; you've educated yourself and understand the constraints and ramifications. But it's probably not a great idea to be recommending that to newbies, that they also do something that isn't supported and could cause headaches if they aren't aware of all the facts. – E-Riz Mar 05 '12 at 15:00
  • As long as there is no other way to do this (and there isn't yet) I will use and recommend it. Why is this against how workspaces are designed? And where are the problematic paths (relative paths that point outside the workspace, all others are save)? – Hauke Ingmar Schmidt Mar 05 '12 at 19:56
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I would have thought exporting preferences would work for this problem, but I see no selection for SVN repos in the export list - just CVS - ??

TomF
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