Question

I’ve created a Java project with two packages using Eclipse on my desktop computer. Each package has a number of files, including some JUnit tests. The project root directory is located in my Dropbox folder, and I’m now trying to open this project from my Laptop, without access to my desktop.

I’ve managed to get ‘Import’ the project using

File -> Import -> General -> Existing Projects into Workspace

but the imported project only partially resembles the one I had on my desktop.

On my desktop my structure was

MarsRover
L src
| L org.ChrisWilson.MarsRover
|   L File1.java
|   L File2.java
|   L File3.java
|
L tests
  L org.ChrisWilson.MarsRoverTests
    L Test1.java
    L Test2.java
    L Test3.java

So, I have the project called MarsRover at the top, two directories called src and tests below that. Each directory contains one package, called org.ChrisWilson.MarsRover and org.ChrisWilson.MarsRoverTests respectfully, and each of these packages contains the source and test files.

My imported project looks like this:

MarsRover
L bin
| L org
|   L ChrisWilson
|     L MarsRover
|       L File1.class
|       L File2.class
|       L File3.class
|     L MarsRoverTests
|       L Test1.class
|       L Test2.clas
|       L Test3.class
L src
| L org
|   L ChrisWilson
|     L MarsRover
|       L File1.java
|       L File2.java
|       L File3.java
|
L tests
  L org
    L ChrisWilson
      L MarsRoverTests
        L Test1.java
        L Test2.java
        L Test3.java

Both my packages have been lost and everything is now just a directory. I am no longer able to run either my project or the tests.

What I want is to be able to open my project in Eclipse running on different computers and have the first project structure. I’m new to both Eclipse and Java, and would welcome any advice on how to make working with these two tools on different computers as easy as possible.

Answer 1

There is a risk of “conflicted files”. Wenn you have your project open on desktop and notebook at the same time, they make changes to the projectconfig which could be not mergeable by dropbox. so its better to move to git ore something similiar (perhaps at bitbucket.org) and ignore the .metdata-dir of eclipse (every client has his own project config)