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JBoss Tools and Red Hat CodeReady Studio for Eclipse 2019-09

posted by Jeff Maury on Nov 05, 2019.

release jbosstools devstudio jbosscentral codereadystudio

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JBoss Tools 4.13.0 and Red Hat CodeReady Studio 12.13 for Eclipse 2019-09 are here waiting for you. Check it out!

crstudio12

Installation

Red Hat CodeReady Studio comes with everything pre-bundled in its installer. Simply download it from our Red Hat CodeReady product page and run it like this:

java -jar codereadystudio-<installername>.jar

JBoss Tools or Bring-Your-Own-Eclipse (BYOE) CodeReady Studio require a bit more:

This release requires at least Eclipse 4.13 (2019-09) but we recommend using the latest Eclipse 4.13 2019-09 JEE Bundle since then you get most of the dependencies preinstalled.

Once you have installed Eclipse, you can either find us on the Eclipse Marketplace under "JBoss Tools" or "Red Hat CodeReady Studio".

For JBoss Tools, you can also use our update site directly.

http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/photon/stable/updates/

What is new?

Our main focus for this release was improvements for container based development and bug fixing. Eclipse 2019-09 itself has a lot of new cool stuff but let me highlight just a few updates in both Eclipse 2019-09 and JBoss Tools plugins that I think are worth mentioning.

OpenShift

OpenShift Container Platform 4.2 support

With the new OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) 4.2 now available (see this article), even if this is a major shift compared to OCP 3, JBoss Tools is compatible with this major release in a transparent way. Just define your connection to your OCP 4.2 based cluster as you did before for an OCP 3 cluster, and use the tooling !

CodeReady Containers 1.0 Server Adapter

A new server adapter has been added to support the next generation of CodeReady Containers 1.0. While the server adapter itself has limited functionality, it is able to start and stop the CodeReady Containers virtual machine via its crc binary. Simply hit Ctrl+3 (Cmd+3 on OSX) and type new server, that will bring up a command to setup a new server.

crc server adapter

Enter crc in the filter textbox.

You should see the Red Hat CodeReady Containers 1.0 server adapter.

crc server adapter1

Select Red Hat CodeReady Containers 1.0 and click the Next button.

crc server adapter2

All you have to do is set the location of the CodeReady Containers crc binary file, the pull secret file location (the pull secret file can be downloaded from https://cloud.redhat.com/openshift/install/crc/installer-provisioned).

crc server adapter3

Once you’re finished, a new CodeReady Containers server adapter will then be created and visible in the Servers view.

crc server adapter4

Once the server is started, a new OpenShift connection should appear in the OpenShift Explorer View, allowing the user to quickly create a new Openshift application and begin developing their AwesomeApp in a highly-replicatable environment.

crc server adapter5

Server tools

Wildfly 18 Server Adapter

A server adapter has been added to work with Wildfly 18. It adds support for Java EE 8 and Jakarta EE 8.

EAP 7.3 Beta Server Adapter

A server adapter has been added to work with EAP 7.3 Beta.

Hibernate Tools

Hibernate Runtime Provider Updates

A number of additions and updates have been performed on the available Hibernate runtime providers.

Runtime Provider Updates

The Hibernate 5.4 runtime provider now incorporates Hibernate Core version 5.4.7.Final and Hibernate Tools version 5.4.7.Final.

The Hibernate 5.3 runtime provider now incorporates Hibernate Core version 5.3.13.Final and Hibernate Tools version 5.3.13.Final.

Platform

Views, Dialogs and Toolbar

The new Quick Search dialog provides a convenient, simple and fast way to run a textual search across your workspace and jump to matches in your code. The dialog provides a quick overview showing matching lines of text at a glance. It updates as quickly as you can type and allows for quick navigation using only the keyboard. A typical workflow starts by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L (or Cmd+Alt+Shift+L on Mac). Typing a few letters updates the search result as you type. Use Up-Down arrow keys to select a match, then hit Enter to open it in an editor.

quick search
Save editor when Project Explorer has focus

You can now save the active editor even when the Project Explorer has focus. In cases where an extension contributes Saveables to the Project Explorer, the extension is honored and the save action on the Project Explorer will save the provided saveable item instead of the active editor.

save project explorer
"Show In" context menu available for normal resources

The Show In context menu is now available for an element inside a resource project on the Project Explorer.

showin project explorer
Show colors for additions and deletions in Compare viewer

In simple cases such as a 2-way comparison or a 3-way comparison with no merges and conflicts, the Compare Viewer now shows different colors, depending on whether text has been added, removed or modified. The default colors are green, red and black respectively.

compare editor colors

The colors can be customized through usual theme customization approaches, including using related entries in the Colors and Fonts preference page.

Editor status line shows more selection details

The status line for Text Editors now shows the cursor position, and when the editor has something selected, shows the number of characters in the selection as well. This also works in the block selection mode.

These two new additions to the status line can be disabled via the General > Editors > Text Editors preference page.

selection count
selection offset
Shorter dialog text

Several dialog texts have been shortened. This allows you to capture the important information faster.

Previously

long dialog text

Now

short dialog
Close project via middle-click

In the Project Explorer, you can now close a project using middle-click.

Debug

Improved usability of Environment tab in Launch Configurations

In the Environment Tab of the Launch Configuration dialog, you can now double-click on an environment variable name or value and start editing it directly from the table.

environment variable inline editing

Right-clicking on the environment variable table now opens a context menu, allowing for quick addition, removal, copying, and pasting of environment variables.

environment variable context menu
Show Command Line for external program launch

The External Tools Configuration dialog for launching an external program now supports the Show Command Line button.

external tool showcommandline

Preferences

Close editors automatically when reaching 99 open editors

The preference to close editors automatically is now enabled by default. It will be triggered when you have opened 99 files. If you continue to open editors, old editors will be closed to protect you from performance problems. You can modify this setting in the Preferences dialog via the General > Editors > Close editors automatically preference.

In-table color previews for Text Editor appearance color options

You can now see all the colors currently being used in Text Editors from the Appearance color options table, located in the Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editor page.

text editors color intable
Automatic detection of UI freezes in the Eclipse SDK

The Eclipse SDK has been configured to show stack traces for UI freezes in the Error Log view by default for new workspaces. You can use this information to identify and report slow parts of the Eclipse IDE.

freeze event

You can disable the monitoring or tweak its settings via the options in the General > UI Responsiveness Monitoring preference page as shown below.

ui monitor preference

Themes and Styling

Start automatically in dark theme based on OS theme

On Linux and Mac, Eclipse can now start automatically in dark theme when the OS theme is dark. This works by default, that is on a new workspace or when the user has not explicitly set or changed the theme in Eclipse.

Display of Help content respects OS theme

More and more operating systems provide a system wide dark theme. Eclipse now respects this system wide theme setting when the Eclipse help content is displayed in an external browser. A prerequisite for this is a browser that supports the prefers-color-scheme CSS media query.

As of writing this the following browser versions support it:

  • Firefox version 67

  • Chrome version 76

  • Safari version 12.1

help system dark
Help content uses high resolution icons

The Help System as well as the help content of the Eclipse Platform, the Java Development Tooling and the Plug-in Development Environment now use high resolution icons. They are now crisp on high resolution displays and also looks much better in the dark theme.

help system high res
Improved dark theme on Windows

Labels, Sections, Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, FormTexts and Sashes on forms now use the correct background color in the dark mode on windows.

correct backgrounds

General Updates

Interactive performance

Interactive performance has been further improved in this release and several UI freezes have been fixed.

Show key bindings when command is invoked

For presentations, screen casts and learning purposes, it is very helpful to show the corresponding key binding when a command is invoked. When the command is invoked (via a key binding or menu interaction) the key binding, the command’s name and description are shown on the screen.

show key bindings

You can activate this in the Preferences dialog via the Show key binding when command is invoked check box on the General > Keys preference page. To toggle this setting quickly the command 'Toggle Whether to Show Key Binding' can be used (e.g. via the quick access).

Java Developement Tools (JDT)

Java 13 Support

Java 13

Java 13 is out and Eclipse JDT supports Java 13 for 4.13 via Marketplace.

The release notably includes the following Java 13 features:

  • JEP 354: Switch Expressions (Preview).

  • JEP 355: Text Blocks (Preview).

Please note that these are preview language feature and hence enable preview option should be on. For an informal introduction of the support, please refer to Java 13 Examples wiki.

Java Views and Dialogs

Synchronize standard and error output in console

The Eclipse Console view currently can not ensure that mixed standard and error output is shown in the same order as it is produced by the running process. For Java applications the launch configuration Common Tab now provides an option to merge standard and error output. This ensures that standard and error output is shown in the same order it was produced but at the same time disables the individual coloring of error output.

merge process output

Java Editor

Convert to enhanced 'for' loop using Collections

The Java quickfix/cleanup Convert to enhanced 'for' loop is now offered on for loops that are iterating through Collections. The loop must reference the size method as part of the condition and if accessing elements in the body, must use the get method. All other Collection methods other than isEmpty invalidate the quickfix being offered.

foreachcollectionbefore
foreachcollectionquickfix
foreachcollectionafter
Initialize 'final' fields

A Java quickfix is now offered to initialize an uninitialized final field in the class constructor. The fix will initialize a String to the empty string, a numeric base type to 0, and for class fields it initializes them using their default constructor if available or null if no default constructor exists.

finalquickfix1
finalquickfix2
Autoboxing and Unboxing

Use Autoboxing and Unboxing when possible. These features are enabled only for Java 5 and higher.

autoboxing unboxing feature
Improved redundant modifier removal

Remove redundant modifier now also removes useless abstract modifier on the interfaces.

abstract removal feature

For the given code:

abstract removal before

You get this:

abstract removal after
Javadoc comment generation for module

Adding a Javadoc comment to a Java module (module-info.java) will result in automatic annotations being added per the new module comment preferences.

modulejavadocprefs

The $(tags) directive will add @uses and @provides tags for all uses and provides module statements.

modulejavadoc
Chain Completion Code Assist

Code assist for "Chain Template Proposals" will be available. These will traverse reachable local variables, fields, and methods, to produce a chain whose return type is compatible with the expected type in a particular context.

The preference to enable the feature can be found in the Advanced sub-menu of the Content Assist menu group (Preferences > Java > Editor > Content Assist > Advanced) .

chain completion

Java Formatter

Remove excess blank lines

All the settings in the Blank lines section can now be configured to remove excess blank lines, effectively taking precedence over the Number of empty lines to preserve setting. Each setting has its own button to turn the feature on, right next to its number control. The button is enabled only if the selected number of lines is smaller than the Number of empty lines to preserve, because otherwise any excess lines are removed anyway.

formatter remove excess blank lines
Changes in blank lines settings

There’s quite a lot of changes in the Blank lines section of the formatter profile.

Some of the existing subsections and settings are now phrased differently to better express their function:

  • The Blank lines within class declarations subsection is now Blank lines within type declaration

  • Before first declaration is now Before first member declaration

  • Before declarations of the same kind is now Between member declarations of different kind

  • Before member class declarations is now Between member type declarations

  • Before field declarations is now Between field declarations

  • Before method declarations is now Between method/constructor declarations

More importantly, a few new settings have been added to support more places where the number of empty lines can be controlled:

  • After last member declaration in a type (to complement previously existing Before first member declaration setting)

  • Between abstract method declarations in a type (these cases were previously handled by Between method/constructor declarations)

  • At end of method/constructor body (to complement previously existing At beginning of method/constructor body setting)

  • At beginning of code block and At end of code block

  • Before statement with code block and After statement with code block

  • Between statement groups in 'switch'

Most of the new settings have been put in a new subsection Blank lines within method/constructor declarations.

formatter new blank lines settings

JUnit

JUnit 5.5.1

JUnit 5.5.1 is here and Eclipse JDT has been updated to use this version.

Debug

Enhanced support for --patch-module during launch

The Java Launch Configuration now supports patching of different modules by different sources during the launch. This can be verified in the Override Dependencies…​ dialog in the Dependencies tab in a Java Launch Configuration.

launch dependencies
enhanced patch module

Java Build

Full build on JDT core preferences change

Manually changing the settings file .settings/org.eclipse.jdt.core.prefs of a project will result in a full project build, if the workspace auto-build is on. For example, pulling different settings from a git repository or generating the settings with a tool will now trigger a build. Note that this includes timestamp changes, even if actual settings file contents were not changed.

For the 4.13 release, it is possible to disable this new behavior with the VM property: -Dorg.eclipse.disableAutoBuildOnSettingsChange=true. It is planned to remove this VM property in a future release.

And more…​

You can find more noteworthy updates in on this page.

What is next?

Having JBoss Tools 4.13.0 and Red Hat CodeReady Studio 12.13 out we are already working on the next release for Eclipse 2019-12.

Enjoy!

Jeff Maury

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