Question

I have a web project in Eclipse that contains a linked folder to another folder containing a couple hundred thousand tif images. This directory is linked into the project because the image files need to be available to a java applet deployed with the project. The problem is that the first time the project refreshes after linking the folder (and perhaps in subsequent refreshes, I have not gotten through the first one yet), Eclipse takes forever (the refresh process has been stuck at 98% for the past 40 minutes or so).

Can I tell Eclipse never to worry about these files and/or the file directories when it is refreshing / validating / cleaning / building / doing whatever to the project?

EDIT:
These files reside in the webserver (under the “WebContent” directory tree) because the applet and related POJOS need to access the files by opening a URL byte stream directly to the file that is being accessed. If these files were moved to a different web server, or if the applet and/or related POJOS were changed to access a File ByteStream instead of the URL ByteStream, then I would be required to sign the Applet and Library .jar files with a security certificate, which is not a viable option for this application.

Answer 1

If your .project and .classpath aren’t directly in your project source, you could consider:

• define two different .project and .classpath in two different perspectives, with:
  • one referring everything but your link directory (for development, if you don’t need the WeContent linked subdirectory at all time)
  • one with all the project, including the linked directory, used only in a different Eclipse perspective when you need it.

Another approach would be to try and add the content of that linked directory as “ignored resources“, and see if that has any bearing on the refresh time.