Eclipse Oxygen/Neon and groovy - is it possible?

Question

4 years ago I wrote on Groovy using Eclipse and was happy. Later I used Groovy through IntelliJ or NetBeans. Now again I am supposed to work in Eclipse but I can and want to do many tests in Groovy.

The problem is that when I am trying to get any Groovy plugin from Eclipse Marketplace, Eclipse agrees to install the Groovy-Eclipse feature only with condition of uninstalling of virtually everything. These plugins are old, base on even older jars and are incompatible with contemporary plugins, basing on more modern jars. I am sorry if I am telling that wrong, I am trying up to my understanding of Eclipse plugins compatibility and creation.

I see three ways:

To forget Groovy and do tests on Java. But analyzing XML, HTML and JSON in java is much less convenient. I wouldn't like to go that way.

To load the Eclipse for plugin developers, the source code of Groovy plugin and recreate it with new jars. It is the most interesting way, but I am horrified by the amount of work - it will take weeks. Or more. And I need tests now.

To install some light Eclipse package that has Groovy. That would be fast. But I won't like to install some several years old version.

IMHO, I am not breaking the rules, for I am not asking for a tool. I am asking for a modern, correct and compatible combination of versions of the known tools - Eclipse and Groovy plugin.

Also, it is not a duplicate of the old questions, for I know how to work on Groovy on old versions of Eclipse. And I am asking about new versions - Oxygen or Neon.

I can see on the GitHub https://github.com/groovy/groovy-eclipse/wiki/Groovy-Eclipse-2.9.2-Release-Notes obviously the last version of groovy for Eclipse. But how can I add it to an Eclipse package? Not a way is given on the page. What is the sense of making an Eclipse plugin that does not support an import from Eclipse? Obviously, there should exist some way.

If I go to https://www.function1.com/2016/06/installing-eclipse-groovy-plugin, there is a version of Groovy for Mars. It agrees to be installed on Oxygen only on conditions of uninstalling maven and java. A bit too severe, isn't it?

Answer 1

The marketplace reference for Groovy has been updated. The GitHub project wiki for Groovy-Eclipse lists the latest snapshot and release update sites that you can use to install Groovy support into Eclipse.

After installing Eclipse Oxygen (4.7) IDE for Java Developers, add Groovy support like this (if you don't have the marketplace client):

Go to Help > Install New Software...

Click Add... button

Enter

• "Groovy Development Tools" for Name (or something similar)
• "http://dist.springsource.org/release/GRECLIPSE/e4.7" for Location

(Other locations on this page, in particular, you may want to try the "snapshot builds" instead of the release builds; in that case use the URL "http://dist.springsource.org/snapshot/GRECLIPSE/e4.7" for example.)

Click OK button

Select "Main Package / Eclipse Groovy Development Tools" in Available Software dialog

Click Next button twice

Select "I accept the terms..."

Click Finish button

Once updates have finished, click Restart Now.

You can now do File > New > Project > Groovy > Groovy Project

The following elements appear as installed in Help > About Eclipse > Installation Details (image is a bit out-of-date)