Question

I currently have a eclipse plugin with a view. Inside the src foler, there is an icons folder which contains some images I would like to use in my plugin. Inside my program I use lines such as:

public static final Image anImage = new Image(null, "sample_image.gif");

And then proceed to use that image somewhere. This work when I run my program locally, but when I export my plugin to a jar, and then install it to a new Eclipse, the plugin breaks. When I take out the image usage in the code, the plugin works normally without the images. I’m wonder what the correct way is in order to get my images usable in the exported jar file for plugin installation.

I had a previous problem and SO question similar to this one, and someone suggested using Classloader.getResource(). I haven’t had much luck trying to get it to work, and it seems like it wouldn’t be necessary, as by default if you use a PDT generated Eclipse views plugin demo template, it comes with an icon folder that uses a “sample.gif”, which as far as I can tell, works fine.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Typically you should use the icons folder approach. Ensure the folder is exported in the build.properties file (under the bin.includes section). If you use the MANIFEST.MF editor and tick the icons folder in the “Binary Build” section of the “Build” tab.
The src folder is treated differently – it assumes there is code to compile and the compiled output is included, not the original folder.
It “works” when running from an eclipse with the plugin in the workspace because the workspace directory is used instead of the compiled plug-in.
You can load the image using the imageDescriptorFromPlugin from AbstractUIPlugin.
For example use;

Image img = AbstractUIPlugin.imageDescriptorFromPlugin("you.bundle.id", "/icons/sample_image.gif").createImage();