Pieces of Flare - How to get started

To use the plugin follow the following steps to get started.

1. Get the latest release from sourceforge. or you can use the eclipse update manager using http://piecesofflare.sourceforge.net/updates/ and skip to step 3.

2. Unzip the distribution into the Eclipse plugin directory. You should end up with a directory called 'org.osconsulting.piecesofflare_1.1.1' containing the distribution jar files.

3. Activate plugin by right-clicking on the project and selecting 'Add/Remove PiecesOfFlare'. This will add the required CopyBuider and the CopyNature to your .project file.

You can verify that the plugin is loaded by clicking on the Properties for your project and selecting the 'Builders'. This should look like:

4. Add a file called '.piecesofflare.xml' to the root of your project. This is where you configure the plugin. Create this file in the root of the abc project. An example of this file is given below

<synchronizedDirectories>
       	<SynchronizedDirectory>
		<name>velocity and jsps</name>
		<extensions>.vm,.jsp,.html</extensions>
		<fromdir>C:/cygwin/home/kstam/dev/abccms_bugfix/web/</fromdir>
        <todir>C:/cygwin/home/kstam/apps/jboss-3.2.6/abc_bugfix/server/default/deploy/abc.ear/abc.war/</todir>
	</SynchronizedDirectory>
       	<SynchronizedDirectory>
		<name>javascript</name>
		<extensions>.js</extensions>
		<fromdir>C:/cygwin/home/kstam/dev/abccms_bugfix/web/js</fromdir>
        <todir>C:/cygwin/home/kstam/apps/jboss-3.2.6/abc_bugfix/server/default/deploy/abc.ear/abc.war/js</todir>
	</SynchronizedDirectory>
</synchronizedDirectories>

You can download the example piecesofflare.xml configuration file.

You can have one or more 'synchronized directories'. Each synchronized directory must be given an (arbitrary) name, a comma separated list of file extensions, the fromdir (the directory in your source tree) and the todir (the directory on your appserver)

5. That's all. Now when you save a file in the 'fromdir' with a matching file extension, the new version of this file is copied to the 'todir'. You can verify it's action by looking at the logging in the eclipse error log as shown below.

Can I build the project myself?

Yes. Check out the project from CVS with Eclipse. Note that for now you can only build PiecesOfFlare in Eclipse. Run the 'zip' target to get the current distribution. Note that we generate some of the java source classes using Castor.

Can I copy files to a remote host?

Yes, since version 1.1 we now support the scp protocol. For details on how to use this feature look at the scp page