Incremental Project Builders

org.eclipse.core.resources.builders

The workspace supports the notion of an incremental project builder (or "builder" for short"). The job of a builder is to process a set of resource changes (supplied as a resource delta). For example, a Java builder would recompile changed Java files and produce new class files.

Builders are confgured on a per-project basis and run automatically when resources within their project are changed. As such, builders should be fast and scale with respect to the amount of change rather than the number of resources in the project. This typically implies that builders are able to incrementally update their "built state".

The builders extension-point allows builder writers to register their builder implementation under a symbolic name that is then used from within the workspace to find and run builders. The symbolic name is the id of the builder extension. When defining a builder extension, users are encouraged to include a human-readable value for the "name" attribute which identifies their builder and potentially may be presented to users.

<!ELEMENT extension (builder)>

<!ATTLIST extension

point CDATA #REQUIRED

id    CDATA #REQUIRED

name  CDATA #IMPLIED>


<!ELEMENT builder (run?)>

<!ATTLIST builder

hasNature      (true | false)

isConfigurable (true | false) >


<!ELEMENT run (parameter*)>

<!ATTLIST run

class CDATA #REQUIRED>


<!ELEMENT parameter EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST parameter

name  CDATA #REQUIRED

value CDATA #REQUIRED>


Following is an example of a builder configuration:

   

<extension id=

"coolbuilder"

name=

"Cool Builder"

point=

"org.eclipse.core.resources.builders"

>

<builder hasNature=

"false"

>

<run class=

"com.xyz.builders.Cool"

>

<parameter name=

"optimize"

value=

"true"

/>

<parameter name=

"comment"

value=

"Produced by the Cool Builder"

/>

</run>

</builder>

</extension>

If this extension was defined in a plug-in with id "com.xyz.coolplugin", the fully qualified name of this builder would be "com.xyz.coolplugin.coolbuilder".

The value of the class attribute must represent a subclass of org.eclipse.core.resources.IncrementalProjectBuilder.

The platform itself does not have any predefined builders. Particular product installs may include builders as required.