How to install ArcGIS plug-ins

Summary The ArcGIS Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) plug-ins contain features that make the development of ArcGIS Engine applications easier. This topic shows how to install the plug-in and update it periodically, and describes the necessary steps to download and configure the Eclipse IDE.

In this topic

About installing ArcGIS plug-ins
Downloading and installing Eclipse
Creating ArcGIS update sites
Installing ArcGIS plug-ins
Additional Note for Solaris Platform
Updating ArcGIS plug-ins

About installing ArcGIS plug-ins

The installation of ArcGIS Engine plug-ins for the Eclipse IDE provides the following features:

Wizards to help you create visual applications. For more information, see How to get started with templates.
Drag-and-drop capability for ArcGIS Engine controls in the Eclipse palette. For more information, see How to build an application in Eclipse using visual beans.
Wizards to browse and execute ESRI samples that show the functionality of ArcGIS Engine. For more information, see How to add other ArcGIS integration features.
Debugging capability for ArcObjects from the Eclipse debug perspective. For more information, see Debugging ArcObjects using Eclipse IDE.
A new ArcGIS Engine user library that includes arcobjects.jar and its Javadoc information. When the library is added to your Eclipse project, the Javadoc information can be accessed within your Java code editor. For more information, see How to access ArcObjects Javadoc in Eclipse IDE.
Wizards to help you create ArcGIS Java extensions to extend ArcGIS functionality.
Geoprocessing code generator wizard that generates Java wrappers for geoprocessing tools.

The doc plug-in is deprecated from ArcGIS 9.3.1 onwards. For more information on integrating the help content with the Eclipse IDE, see How to access ArcGIS help content in Eclipse IDE.

Downloading and installing Eclipse

To install the Eclipse IDE from the Eclipse Web site, see Eclipse Downloads and Installing and using the Eclipse IDE for Java developers.

Creating ArcGIS update sites

After installing Eclipse, do the following to install ArcGIS plug-ins by creating local update sites:

Click Help, Software Updates, then Find and Install on the Eclipse main menu. The Install/Update wizard appears.
Click the "Search for new features to install" option button and click Next. See the following screen shot:
After you click Next on the Install/Update wizard, the Install wizard appears. Click New Local Site to create a local update site and install the ArcGIS Eclipse plug-ins. See the following screen shot.

Different sites can show on the Install dialog box depending on the Eclipse version.

Browse to the location of the local site, %ARCGISHOME%/java/tools/eclipse_plugin/arcgis_update_site/engine, and click OK. The Edit Local Site dialog box appears.
Type ArcGISEngineUpdateSite in the Name text box and click OK. See the following screen shot:
When you click OK on the Edit Local Site dialog box, the Install wizard appears with ArcGISEngineUpdateSite in the list of sites to include in the search. Select the ArcGISEngineUpdateSite check box and click Finish. See the following screen shot:

Installing ArcGIS plug-ins

When a connection is made, the available features on the update sites show. Do the following to install the ArcGIS plug-ins:

Expand the ArcGISDocUpdateSite node and select all ArcGIS Core and ArcGIS Doc check boxes.
Expand the ArcGISEngineUpdateSite node and select all check boxes. See the following screen shot:

An error shows on the preceding Updates wizard indicating that a plug-in is required. The Visual Editor project is required to install the ArcGIS Engine Palette feature for the ArcGIS Eclipse plug-in. The ArcGIS Engine Palette feature for the plug-in adds ArcGIS visual bean components to the Eclipse Palette with other swing components. It has a user interface from which to drag and drop ArcGIS visual bean components to design ArcGIS Engine applications in the Visual Editor mode.

If the Visual Editor project is not installed in your Eclipse installation, the ArcGIS Engine Palette feature will not function. If the Visual Editor project is not available in your Eclipse installation, the error message appears. You can ignore the ArcGIS Engine Palette feature by clearing the check box and clicking Finish, then go to Step 3.

Optionally, you can cancel the ArcGIS plug-in installation and manually install the Visual Editor project. The current version (v1.2) of the Visual Editor project is only supported on Eclipse 3.2 (Callisto). For more information, see Maintenance Build on the Eclipse Web site.

The Web Tools Platform (WTP) all-in-one project (version 1.5.) that is bundled with Eclipse 3.2.2 provides a Visual Editor update site to install the Visual Editor plug-in by default. For more information, see Visual Editor Project on the Eclipse Web site.

After you click Finish on the Updates wizard, the Install wizard appears. Read and click the "I accept the terms in the license agreements" option button to accept the ESRI license agreement, then click Next. See the following screen shot:
Select the location to install the ArcGIS Eclipse plug-in and click Finish. See the following screen shot:
After you click Finish on the preceding wizard, the Verification dialog box appears. Click Install All and restart Eclipse when prompted. See the following screen shot:
If you are prompted to set the ArcGIS installation directory, after restarting Eclipse, browse to and select the ArcGIS installation directory (%ARCGISHOME%). If you are not prompted, the ArcGIS Eclipse plug-in automatically detects the installation directory (an overview welcome page will appear).

Additional Note for Solaris Platform

The Eclipse Ganymede SDK download available for Solaris platform does not include a ArcGIS dependent plug-in by default and the wizards for creating ArcGIS Extension classes may not be available as a result. Hence you should install Eclipse XML Editors and tools from the 'Available Software' list in the Software Updates and Add-ons UI.

Updating ArcGIS plug-ins

ESRI periodically releases updates for ArcGIS plug-ins that include additional plug-in capabilities, or new help topics and samples.

Do the following to verify updates for all sites including ArcGIS plug in update sites (this method can be slow because it tries to update every installed feature):

Click Help, Software Updates, then Find and Install. The Install/Update wizard appears.
Click the "Search for updates of the currently installed features" option button and click Finish.

Do the following to verify updates only for the ArcGIS plug-in:

Click Help, Software Updates, and Manage Configuration. The Product Configuration window appears.
On the Product Configuration window, click to expand the TOC.
Right-click the ArcGIS Core or ArcGIS Engine node, then click Find Updates. See the following screen shot:

Development licensing	Deployment licensing
Engine Developer Kit	Engine Runtime
ArcView	ArcEditor
ArcEditor	ArcView
ArcInfo	ArcInfo