Fork me on GitHub
Built by Maven

Building Products

Tycho supports building Eclipse RCP applications (products) through the eclipse-repository packaging type and the tycho-p2-director-plugin.

Overview

Products are defined using .product files and can be materialized and packaged using Tycho's P2 Director Plugin. This enables you to create standalone applications based on Eclipse plugins and features.

Basic Product Configuration

To build a product, create a project with the eclipse-repository packaging type that contains a .product file:

<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <artifactId>my.product</artifactId>
  <packaging>eclipse-repository</packaging>
  
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
        <artifactId>tycho-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${tycho-version}</version>
        <extensions>true</extensions>
      </plugin>
      
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
        <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${tycho-version}</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>materialize-products</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>materialize-products</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
          <execution>
            <id>archive-products</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>archive-products</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Profile Properties

Profile properties are a powerful feature that allows you to customize the behavior of the P2 installation profile when materializing products. These properties control various aspects of how the product is installed and configured.

Common Profile Properties

Installing Sources Alongside Products

One of the most useful applications of profile properties is to include source bundles in your product installation. This is particularly helpful during development or when you want to enable debugging of the application.

Use the installSources parameter:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
  <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>${tycho-version}</version>
  <configuration>
    <installSources>true</installSources>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

This is equivalent to setting the profile property org.eclipse.update.install.sources=true.

Installing Feature JARs

By default, feature JARs are installed with the product. You can control this behavior:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
  <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>${tycho-version}</version>
  <configuration>
    <installFeatures>true</installFeatures>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

This is equivalent to setting the profile property org.eclipse.update.install.features=true.

Custom Profile Properties

You can set arbitrary profile properties using the profileProperties configuration parameter:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
  <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>${tycho-version}</version>
  <configuration>
    <profileProperties>
      <org.eclipse.update.install.sources>true</org.eclipse.update.install.sources>
      <org.eclipse.update.install.features>true</org.eclipse.update.install.features>
      <myCustomProperty>myValue</myCustomProperty>
    </profileProperties>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Complete Example

Here's a complete example that builds a product with sources included:

<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>my.product</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>eclipse-repository</packaging>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
        <artifactId>tycho-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${tycho-version}</version>
        <extensions>true</extensions>
      </plugin>

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
        <artifactId>tycho-p2-repository-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${tycho-version}</version>
        <configuration>
          <includeAllDependencies>true</includeAllDependencies>
          <includeAllSources>true</includeAllSources>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
        <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${tycho-version}</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>materialize-products</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>materialize-products</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
          <execution>
            <id>archive-products</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>archive-products</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
        <configuration>
          <products>
            <product>
              <id>my.product.id</id>
            </product>
          </products>
          <installSources>true</installSources>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Using Profiles for Development vs. Production

It's common to use Maven profiles to enable different configurations for development and production builds. For example, you might want to include sources only during development:

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <id>development</id>
    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
          <artifactId>tycho-p2-repository-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>${tycho-version}</version>
          <configuration>
            <includeAllSources>true</includeAllSources>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
          <artifactId>tycho-p2-director-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>${tycho-version}</version>
          <configuration>
            <installSources>true</installSources>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </build>
  </profile>
</profiles>

Activate the profile with: mvn clean verify -Pdevelopment

Additional Resources