Orsburn (Static Content)

Eclipse maintains a directory at the root of a project with the name ".settings."  If, for whatever reason, Eclipse can't seem to find this directory, or the files in it, Eclipse will report an error vaguely stating a problem "Detecting library folders."  Removing the .settings directory will solve the problem. Presumably, Eclipse rebuilds any information it maintains in that directory, though it's not clear what the information is.  Assume that any arbitrary details that seem off might be associated with removing this folder. The "Detecting library folders" error dialogue window. Due to the non sequitur nature of the error, there isn't much context to work off of other than the "org.eclipse.wst.validation" identifier, and the "detecting library folders" pseudo-clue.  As such, there isn't much that comes back from searches around the web for solutions to the issue, but the combination of the three references...

Eclipse PDT (PHP Development Tools) has the ability to quickly show the definitions of functions and methods by hovering the cursor over the parentheses of a reference.  This feature is an extension of the typical docblock or signature reveal when hovering over a method or function call itself. It's not as easy to hover over a parenthesis as it is to hover over a function reference, so invoking the tip can be a little clumsy.  And there's another peculiarity with the feature too.  Typically, the inline popups like this are "focusable" by moving the mouse from a hover into the pop-up.  For these pop-ups though, they immediately disappear when moving away from the parentheses.  Instead, use the F2 key to focus the pop-up.  In spite of these usability matters, the feature is handy as a quick reference and is welcome. It's possible that other Eclipse plug-ins have a similar feature to, so in order to get an idea as to whether or not this is a featur...

Preface To begin with, the operation described here is something that falls outside of the way Eclipse is meant to be worked with.  Eclipse has a concept of "Workspaces" to allow the IDE to be completely reconfigured for the type of development that is being done. This is a great idea in theory, but in practice it can be quite cumbersome and off-putting.  Off-putting simply because changing a Workspace means that everything needs to be reconfigured again.  Font colors, view locations, and who knows what else. It's true that creating a new Workspace allows the Workbench Layout and Working Sets to be copied.  And the settings can be exported from one Workspace to the next.  Still, once all of this is done, if changes are made in one, they would have to be applied to any of the other Workspaces that have been create as well, if one wants to maintain a consistent environment across all projects.  Plus, it doesn't really work anyway.  All Views still...

Issue Attempts to create or import a project consistently fail stating that a project with the specific name already exists.  However, the project does not appear in the explorer or navigator views. Cause The issue is because Eclipse is set to list only a certain set of projects (Working Set). Solution The steps to resolve this issue will depend on the "file" view in use.  This means things like an explorer ( PHP Explorer for instance) or the Navigator.  There is a downward pointing triangle, most likely along the top right of the view. View Menu | Select Working Set… Choose a combination of options The selection in the second step should probably be Window Working Set or No Working Set . Environment Version Eclipse 4.4 Luna (any version that supports working sets) OS Any Browser Not applicable Details There is no clear indication or any sort of visual cue to make it readily known that the projects in a listing are for a speci...

Eclipse has the ability to prevent certain files from being incorporated into projects or from being scanned during file searches.  The limits are applied by way of patterns in the file names. It may well be the case that several IDEs are used in the development of projects which will litter the projects' folders with IDE support files.  These can get in the way of Eclipse, but can be ignored with this resource limiting provision. To get there: Right click on a project Choose Properties Expand Resource Choose Resource Filters Some common "exclude" filters might be: .buildpath (file-level should be fine) .git (folder-level, and should exclude children as well) *.komodoproject (file-level should be fine) .project (folder-level, and should exclude children as well) .settings (folder-level, and should exclude children as well) *.sublime-* (file-level should be fine) Adding these filters to an Eclipse project should allow the placement of project file...

There are two settings to adjust the color of the line pointer while debugging an application in Eclipse .  The distinction between them may not clear, so it will be made here. The settings are located in: Window | Preferences General | Editors | Text Editors | Annotations The settings are Debug Call Stack and Debug Current Instruction Pointer .  The latter is the one that shows the line the debugger is currently stopped at.  If the "Vertical ruler" checkbox is ticked, a right-pointing arrow will show up along the left edge of the editor window.  If the "Overview ruler" box is ticked, then a little marker, the same color as the pointer color, will show up along the right edge of the editor. For the former item, this refers to the settings that apply to any other line in the call stack.  So, the debugger "jumps" around the code when a line in the call stack is selected.  The color of that line and its ruler settings compared to the current lin...

Oddly, the key bindings for switching between tabs by simply moving left and right across the tabs is missing in Eclipse .  The commands exist, but there are no key combinations assigned to them.  Fortunately, using the key binding system in Eclipse can fix this quite easily.  And as an added bonus easy-to-remember combinations don't even need to be re-assigned before doing so. Using Mac keys as the template, a good set of combinations might be: Option + Command + Left (move across the tabs to the left) Option + Command + Right (move across the tabs to the right) Translated to Linux -based and Windows systems, this would be: Alt + Control + Left Alt + Control + Right NOTE:  Using the Keys preference panel, search for the term "tab" to jump right to the command to make the key assignment easier. Perhaps more perplexing than having this capability and not assigning a key stroke to it is that the comm...