Eclipse Tips

If you want to share your tips about using Eclipse, please email them to me at csun@calstatela.edu.

Using Eclipse as a database client

Open a SQL file in Eclipse. Right click and select "Use Database Connection..." -> "Create a new connection" -> "Next". In the next screen you'll need to provide the information about your database, and here's mine using PostgreSQL 8.2:

• Connection Identification: check "Use default naming convention"
• Database Manager: Generic JDBC 1.0 (since PostgreSQL is not listed there)
• User ID: cysun
• Password: abcd
• JDBC Driver: Other
• Database: CS520 Database on Localhost
• JDBC Driver Class: org.postgresql.Driver
• Class location: D:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.2\jdbc\postgresql-8.2-504.jdbc3.jar
• Connection URL: jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/csns

Click "Next" then "Finish".

Now that a database connection is configured, next time when you try to run a SQL script, simply open it, right click and select "Run SQL".

Run Ant Script within Eclipse

Suppose we have a build file in our project, e.g. build.xml, which contains a target called hello. We can of course run this target by going to the command line and type: ant hello. We can also run this target inside Eclipse as follows:

• Choose "External Tools ..." from the drop-down menu of the "External Tools" button on the toolbar. The button looks like a green play button with a red suitcase.
• On the left panel of the window, choose "Ant Build", then click the "New" button at the upper-left corner of the panel. The button looks like a white sheet of paper with a plus sign.
• On the right panel of the window, change the name of the configuration to something descriptive. I usually use <project_name> <target_name>, e.g. spring-examples hello.
• Also on the right panel, choose the "Targets" tab, and select the target(s) you want to run.
• Click on the "Run" button at the buttom of the window.