Eclipse, Part 3 - Java Development User Interface

In Eclipse series, Part2  i have explained how to start working with Eclipse. here i will explain what user interface you need to understand for Java development with eclipse.

Perspectives in Eclipse 

For Java development you usually use the Java Perspective, but Eclipse has much more predefined perspectives, e.g., the Debug perspective and for web development Java EE perspective

Eclipse allows you to switch to another perspective via the Window → Open Perspective → Other... menu entry. 

Sometime you changed the arrangement of views and editors in your perspective and you want to restore Eclipse to its original state. For example, you might have closed a view .

You can reset a perspective to its original state via the Window → Reset Perspective menu entry.

  

Java perspective and Package Explorer 

The default perspective for Java development can be opened via Window → Open Perspective → Java.

On the left hand side, this perspective shows the Package Explorer view, which allows you to browse your projects and to select the components you want to open in an editor via a double-click. 

For example, to open a Java source file, open the tree under src, select the corresponding .java file and double-click it. This will open the file in the default Java editor.

In the middle you see the open editors. Several editors are stacked in the same container and you can switch between them by clicking on the corresponding tab. Via drag and drop you can move an editor to a new position in the Eclipse IDE.

To the right and below the editor area you find more views which were considered useful by the developer of the perspective. For example, the Javadoc view shows the Javadoc of the selected class or method.

Package Explorer view

The Package Explorer view allows you to browse the structure of your projects and to open files in an editor via a double-click on the file.

It is also used to change the structure of your project. For example, you can rename files or move files and folders via drag and drop.

A right-click on a file or folder shows you the available options.

It also represents the JRE system library associated with Eclipse. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Outline view 

 

you will find these two views in right hand of the Eclipse interface

Task list represent something you added for To- do.



The Outline view shows the structure of the currently selected source file.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problems view

   

                                               

The Problems view shows errors and warning messages. The messages which are displayed in the Problems view can be configured via the drop-down menu of the view . For example, to display the problems from the currently selected project, select Configure Contents and set the Scope to On any element in the same project.

The Problems view also allows you to trigger a Quick fix via a right mouse-click on several selected messages.

 Java editor

The Java editor is used to modify the Java source code. Each Java source file is opened in a separate editor.

If you click in the left column of the editor, you can configure its properties, for example, that line number should be displayed