Is the PDE's "Update Site Wizard" still the right way to create an update site?

Question

The point of this question is to get verification from someone knowledgeable of the current state of affairs with the Eclipse install system.

I have an Eclipse plugin and I want to make an update site for it using the easiest (but correct) method available. My initial impression was that I:

1. Create a feature with the PDE Feature Project.
2. Add my plugin to the feature.
3. Create an update site with the PDE Update Site Project.
4. Add my feature to the update site.

Then I started looking for documentation on the whole Eclipse install system and started reading about this P2 thing, which is apparently new and replaces whatever came before.

The information I find about the PDE projects and wizards doesn't discuss P2, or I haven't found the right information, which makes me a little nervous that I may be doing something wrong or missing something important.

So, do I need to care about P2, or is P2 something that happens under the hood where I can safely ignore it, so long as I continue to use the PDE tools?

Thanks!

Answer 1

No you're alright, P2 isn't new anymore. It was introduced in Eclipse 3.4, a few years ago, replacing the old Update Manager. IBM has an article on it here.

As is so often the case with Eclipse concepts, Lars Vogel has a good tutorial on the subject at http://www.vogella.de/.

By the way, an even simpler way of creating an update site is not to create an update site project, and instead export the feature as a Deployable Feature. The same files are generated. But it's a better idea to create the update site project, especially if you will be making frequent releases.