Eclipse Helios is the simultaneous release of Eclipse 3.6 and a bundle of Eclipse projects.
This post updates my previous quick configuration howtos for Ganymede and Galileo, helping to quickly get up and running with essential Eclipse plugins. The Helios release is ready for use with many key thirdparty plugins already working, a much improved situation on the original release of Galileo. The recipe is for Windows - extrapolate as required.
1. Download Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (either eclipse-jee-helios-win32.zip for 32-bit Windows, or eclipse-java-helios-win32-x86_64.zip for 64-bit Windows). These can be found via http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
2. Make a folder for Eclipse somewhere called 'Eclipse', and unzip the Eclipse SDK zip file to the parent folder. I typically create c:\Java\Eclipse and unzip to c:\Java
3. Create a shortcut to Eclipse, for example:
C:\Java\Eclipse\eclipse.exe -clean -vm "C:\Java\JSE6\bin" -vmargs -Xmx1536m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m
or, potentially using Server VM / ergonomics:
C:\Java\Eclipse\eclipse.exe -clean -vm "C:\Java\JSE6\bin" -vmargs -server -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Xmx1536m -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -XX:+UseParallelGC -XX:+UseParallelOldGC
(where the ‘vm’ argument points to your appropriate Java runtime with Eclipse - this should be at least version 5.0 and should be 32-bit or 64-bit as appropriate).
NB. Best practice is to point to a JDK rather than a JRE location.
4. Next, search for new features using the Helios Updates (with "Show the latest version" selected).
Pick the appropriate platform features - you can safely select everything. Typical selection could be Business Intelligence Reporting and Charting, Database Development, Programming Languages (Eclipse Java Development Tools, Eclipse XML Editors and Tools and JavaScript Development Tools), Test and Performance, Web XML and Java EE Development (excluding PHP Development Tools (PDT) SDK Feature).
Also, from the Mylyn for Eclipse Helios select all updates except C/C++ Development, Mylyn SDK and Mylyn WikiText SDK).
5. After restarting again, the following update sites can be used to add Mylyn Extras, AspectJ Developer Tools, SvnKit, SubClipse, M2 Eclipse, QuantumDB, PMD, Spring Tools Suite, JBoss Tools, and Log4E:
AJDT http://download.eclipse.org/tools/ajdt/36/update
SvnKit http://eclipse.svnkit.com/1.3.x/
SubClipse http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.6.x
Eclipse GEF (for release 3.6.x select GEF, Zest and Draw2d only) http://download.eclipse.org/tools/gef/updates/releases/
M2 Eclipse http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/sites/m2e
QuantumDB http://quantum.sourceforge.net/update-site
Qwickie http://qwickie.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/qwickie.updatesite/
JBoss Tools [DEV] http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/development/ (only Context and Dependency Injection Tools (all instances), Freemarker IDE (both instances), Hibernate Tools (all instances), JBoss Tools RichFaces, JBossAS Tools, Seam Tools, XULRunner, TPTP Profile on JBoss Server, JBoss Tools RichFaces (both instances), JBossAS Tools (both instances), SeamTools (both instances), XULRunner (both instances)).
then restart
PMD http://pmd.sourceforge.net/eclipse (only PMD for Eclipse 3)
Groovy http://dist.springsource.org/release/GRECLIPSE/e3.6/ (except SDK)
EclipseLink (JPA) http://download.eclipse.org/rt/eclipselink/updates/
Eclipse Target Management Project (all except RSE WinCE Services and Examples & SDKs) http://download.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm/updates/3.2
Atlassian Connector (all except Atlassian Subversive Integration, Atlassian Perforce Integration and Dependencies) http://update.atlassian.com/atlassian-eclipse-plugin/e3.6
then restart
SpringSource Tool Suite [DEV] (except for SpringIDE Core Developer Resources which cannot be installed) http://dist.springsource.com/milestone/TOOLS/update/e3.6
then restart
Log4E http://log4e.jayefem.de/update (note that the free version cannot be installed using the update site)
Azzurri Clay http://www.azzurri.co.jp/eclipse/plugins
JavaCC Plugin http://eclipse-javacc.sourceforge.net/
then restart
Apache Directory Studio http://directory.apache.org/studio/update/1.x
TestNG http://beust.com/eclipse
then restart
6. Other interesting plugins you might want to consider could include:
Checkstyle http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update/
LogWatcher http://graysky.sourceforge.net/
Color Editor http://www.gstaff.org/colorEditor/download.html
7. A couple of plugins are best installed by hand:
Download Jar Class Finder version 2.1.0 from http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/jarclassfinder/download and copy the Jar to the Eclipse/dropins/plugins subdirectory.
Download Tarlog Plugin 1.4.0 from http://code.google.com/p/tarlog-plugins/ (I used tarlog.eclipse.plugins_1.4.2.jar) and copy the Jar to the Eclipse/dropins/plugins subdirectory.
Download Bnd from http://www.aqute.biz/Code/Download and copy the Jar to the Eclipse/dropins/plugins subdirectory.
8. Configure eclipse.ini, for example, with the following:
-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.1.0.v20100507.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.1.0.v20100503
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.java.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx1536m