Eclipse plugin reuse outside eclipse

Question

Is it possible to run an Eclipse Plugin outside of Eclipse?

Answer 1

Not really, because you need the Equinox runtime container. you could run a plugin using the eclipse exeecutable, and as an application, see:

http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_create_an_application%3F

You're effectively creating an an org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications extension point.

You could also publish a plugin as part of an Eclipse application and then export it as an executable so that it can be run aside from Eclipse. This still bundles the Equinox runtime and plugin together though.

Answer 2

Ultimately, plug-ins are still java code. Whether or not your plug-in runs outside of Eclipse depends on what its dependencies are. If your bundles are more OSGi oriented, you can likely run on other framework like Felix.

If you are careful you can run outside of OSGi entirely. For example, the Equinox Registry can run standalone outside of OSGi. (See this testing page, "Part IV. Standalone registry run")