Eclipse webtools project (WTP) and its performance / quality

Question

Our company is using eclipse since several years now (we are using WTP since release 0.7)

I am currently evaluating eclipse 3.6.2 with WTP 3.2.3 which s

Answer 1

I have seen similar effects, here's one solution that might be suitable in some project environments...

To guarantee fast and responsible Eclipse Web project environment, consider this:

1. Use Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
   • 98MB version is leaner than 200MB EE version
   • from General / Startup and Shutdown, disable all but "Eclipse UI"
   • from Validation, disable validators which you do not need
   • these probably prevent some performance issues (YMMW)
2. Use Jetty
   • you do not need WTP or any other plugins, it's pure Java
   • like Tomcat but very quick & simple to install into any IDE / environment
   • embed directly into your project files, configure once for every developer
   • works in any IDE (Eclipse, IDEA, JDeveloper..)
   • start Servlet Container with "Debug As" / "Run As"
   • shutdown Servlet Container by clicking red box on Eclipse console
   • IDE Console, debugging & hot code replacement & JRebel works fine

Result: fast & responsive Eclipse when compared to many other Eclipse installations that use Eclipse EE version with WTP stuff.

Why? It might be that some Eclipse feature or plugin contains bugs or simply uses resources in a bad way and this makes Eclipse UI sluggish.

Non-Java EE Eclipse is good enough even for many Java EE project environments, it all depends on your architecture and what tools you are using..

Here's a quick tutorial to get started in case you wish to try Jetty Servlet Container out with Eclipse. See https://vaadin.com/web/jani/home/-/blogs/vaadin-for-everyone-how-to-get-started . Download VaadinProjectForAnyIDE.zip, it's an Eclipse project. Just ignore that Vaadin stuff and replace HelloWorldApplication.java with your own servlet and edit web.xml accordingly.

One more thing. With Eclipse EE version, you might also wish to try J2EE preview server which actually is Jetty embedded into Eclipse bundle. However, this also uses WTP mechanism.