Eclipse Papercut #9 – Default preference settings via plugin_customization.ini – Type Filter Example

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Lars Vogel

Dani Megert gave me in the Eclipse forum the tip how setup default values preferences, in this example for for JDT type filters.

The solution is relatively easy. Create in your Eclipse installation directory a file called “plug_customization.ini” and add a pointer in your eclipse.ini to this file via the -pluginCustomization parameter.

For example to filter out swing and awt in JDT you can use the following in “plug_customization.ini”

org.eclipse.jdt.ui/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.typefilter.enabled=java.awt.*;javax.swing.*;

your eclipse.ini could look like:

-pluginCustomization
plugin_customization.ini
-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20120522-1813.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_64_1.1.200.v20120522-1813
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Dhelp.lucene.tokenizer=standard
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m

To identify additional preference settings you can use the following approach (also described by Dani):

1. start a new workspace
2. change the preference
3. export all preferences
4. search the key in the exported file

Note that you need to remove the scope (e.g. /instance/) before copying
it into the plugin_customization.ini file.

About Lars Vogel

Lars Vogel is the founder and CEO of the vogella GmbH and works as Eclipse and Android consultant, trainer and book author. He is a regular speaker at international conferences, He is the primary author of vogella.com. With more than one million visitors per month this website is one of the central sources for Java, Eclipse and Android programming information.
This entry was posted in Eclipse, Papercut and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Eclipse Papercut #9 – Default preference settings via plugin_customization.ini – Type Filter Example

  1. Sascha says:
    August 15, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Hi Lars,

    did you check out Eclipse Workspace Mechanic? I like that, because it asks which changes you want to apply for each workspace… Great tool imho

  2. Lars Vogel says:
    August 15, 2012 at 3:17 pm

    @Sascha, I know about the tool but have not used it.

  3. Robert Konigsberg says:
    August 16, 2012 at 5:19 am

    Lars, I maintain the Workspace mechanic. This is a use case that the Workspace Mechanic excels at. I’d be happy to guide you through it if you like.

  4. Lars Vogel says:
    August 16, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Thanks Robert. Does Workspace mechanic allows to store configurations across machines?

  5. Robert Konigsberg says:
    August 17, 2012 at 6:06 am

    I haven’t fully documented it (but there should be enough) but you can store these preferences on a web server, and access them via URL.

    By the way, I’m not subscribed to the comments of this post, so let me know by email or Google+ if you have further questions.

Comments are closed.