Distributing eclipse with UI customizations

Question

I would like to use Eclipse in an intro programming class. Is there some way I can make some kind of preferences file or some such that I can distribute with it that would set defaults for:

1. which buttons are in the toolbar
2. which menus are enabled in the application
3. which context-menus are enabled
4. what kinds of completions are available
   1. I'd like it to start with only completing words from the current document
      • that is no Java API completions or code generation or whatever

Answer 1

This can be done using Eclipse Preferences File. All you need to do is import preferences into your workspace.

You can also export the workspace folder itself & publish Eclipse together with a default workspace folder, which will contain all the preferences.

Then create a shortcut to start eclipse with -data <path to your workspace> parameter

Answer 2

I'd try the following:

• Install Eclipse
• Put the configuration files and workspace under version control and commit.
• Configure Eclipse as required.
• Check all the changes in the version control to understand what configuration files are relevant to my changes.
• Continue as Zilvinas is suggesting.

Answer 3

Look into Eclipse Oomph. It essentially automates all the tasks that you need to do to set up a fresh dev environment.

Also of interest are Yatta profiles which do a similar thing based off Oomph.

They're pretty easy to set up and publish. Get your local eclipse working, record to a profile, publish the profile, get your students to consume said profile. We've used these in a professional environment to more easily on-board new devs!