Configuring Eclipse Tycho Maven Plugin to use Target Definition File and Publishing Target Platform Bundles to Update Site

I answered an Eclipse Tycho Maven Plugin question on StackOverfow and I think I should repeat it here (for my own purpose, hehe.. I am forgetful :-)

I should expand this to have better coverage of Tycho workflow but usually I'll get lazy so here it is pretty much verbatim.

Create a Target Definition file (.target) and put it inside a Maven project, see here for example target: https://github.com/eclipsesource/com.eclipsesource.tycho.aspectj.demo/blob/master/platform/indigo.target

You need to attach the .target file to the artifact, using the build helper:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
    <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.3</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>attach-artifacts</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>attach-artifact</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <artifacts>
                    <artifact>
                        <file>indigo.target</file>
                        <type>target</type>
                        <classifier>indigo</classifier>
                    </artifact>
                </artifacts>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

(from https://github.com/eclipsesource/com.eclipsesource.tycho.aspectj.demo/blob/master/platform/pom.xml )

Then, in the parent POM or the plug-in projects that use that target definition file, you need to configure the "target" of target-platform-configuration Maven plugin, for example:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
    <artifactId>target-platform-configuration</artifactId>
    <version>${tycho-version}</version>
    <configuration>
        <resolver>p2</resolver>
        <ignoreTychoRepositories>true</ignoreTychoRepositories>
        <target>
            <artifact>
                <groupId>com.eclipsesource.sandbox.weaving.demo</groupId>
                <artifactId>com.eclipsesource.sandbox.weaving.demo.platform</artifactId>
                <version>0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                <classifier>indigo</classifier>
            </artifact>
        </target>
        <environments>
            <environment>
                <os>${build.os}</os>
                <ws>${build.ws}</ws>
                <arch>${build.arch}</arch>
            </environment>
        </environments>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

(taken from https://github.com/eclipsesource/com.eclipsesource.tycho.aspectj.demo/blob/master/releng/pom.xml )

Then your project(s) should build very nicely using Tycho. :-) If your .target references remote p2 repositories and not already in the p2 bundle pool, the necessary artifacts will be downloaded automatically.

Good luck!

Known Issue:

[WARNING] Target location type: Profile is not supported 

As of Tycho 0.12.0, It means the "Eclipse Installation" target source type cannot be used with Tycho (yet?), along with "Directory" and "Features".

Solution: Use the "Update Site" target source.

If you don't have yet an update site, here's to generate an update site from an Eclipse installation (or from any folder containing bundles, for that matter):

/opt/eclipse_rcp/eclipse -consolelog -nosplash -verbose \
  -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.FeaturesAndBundlesPublisher \
  -metadataRepository file:/home/ceefour/p2/bonita/ \
  -artifactRepository file:/home/ceefour/p2/bonita/ \
  -source /home/ceefour/BOS-5.5.1/studio/ \
  -publishArtifacts

Note:

• change /opt/eclipse_rcp to your own Eclipse SDK installation
• metadataRepository and artifactRepository is the folder where the new update site will be created
• source is --you guessed it-- the folder/installation containing the original bundles

To learn more about Eclipse platform programming, I highly recommend Eclipse Rich Client Platform (2nd Edition)