Moving my GWT, GAE installation into my project for source control

Question

I use the google plugin for eclipse with GWT and Appengine libraries. Every so often I upgrade one of the libraries, which currently involves:

1. I install the update somewhere on my HD
2. I add the update as an alternative SDK in eclipse, with a generic name
3. I update the project settings to point to the new generic name
4. I commit the changed settings files (which do NOT include the upgraded library) to our source control

The problem here are in unfortunate steps 5-7: 5 Everyone else's builds stop working past the change, 6 I go from machine to machine, repeating steps 1 and 2, and 7 I think for the nth time, "I should really find a way to automate this."

I'm here for the elusive step 8: Actually automating this. I want to include the SDK in my source control, so when I switch between versions or set up shop on a new machine, the relevant SDKs are automatically installed and downloaded. I don't want to have to configure eclipse settings at all. In my ideal situation, I am willing to install Eclipse and the GPE on each machine, but after that I just want to clone my repository and go.

I've tried doing this by removing the GWT library from my build settings, copying the entire GWT installation folder into the root of my project, and adding gwt-user.jar and gwt-dev.jar to the build path from there. This almost works, but eclipse complains that it can't find gwt-servlet.jar (even though it exists precisely where it claims to be looking for it!). There also seem to be other magical settings I don't understand.

Finally, the question: If this is the right track, what settings do I need to manually control? If this is the wrong track, what's the right one?

Answer 1

+1 good question. This may or may not answer your question, but I can share with you what I do. I also work with GAE and GWT.

I just include the SDK .tar/.zip files in my repository, remove the version numbers from the filename, and update it when I want to move to a new version. If that version migration fails, I can easily revert to the old SDKs. I also use GXT and a bunch of other GWT extensions, so my problem is even worse than yours. I don't use eclipse for GAE nor GWT, so I can't relate to the problems you are having there. If you don't want to have to configure eclipse every time, then don't use eclipse.

Disclaimer: I hate eclipse.