Tips on Using Eclipse Effectively

Tips on Using Eclipse Effectively

Useful Eclipse Shortcut Keys

ALT + Left/Right Arrow	Move backward/forward in the editor navigation history
CTRL+O	Show the quick outline for the editor input
CTRL+K	Find next item, no need to ctrl+f, type some words, then search
CTRL+1	Activates the quick fix
CTRL+SHIFT+T	Open Type
CTRL+SPACE	Content Assist
ALT+/	Word completion
ALR+SHIFT+R	Rename the selected element
ALT+SHIFT+M	Extract statements into a new method and use the new method
Ctrl + L	Go To Line
CTRL+T	Show quick hierarchy of the selected element
CTRL + SHIFT + F	Format code
CTRL+SHIFT+O	Organize imports
Ctrl+Shift+X	Change the selection to upper case, useful in declare final variable
Ctrl+Shift+Y	Change the selection to lower case
Ctrl+Shift+H	Open a type in the type hierarchy view
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save all current contents
Ctrl+Shift+W	Close all editors
Ctrl+Shift+G	Search for references to the selected element in the workspace
CTRL+E	Show a list of all open editors
CTRL + D	Delete row
CTRL+M	Toggle maximize/restore state of active view or editor

Others:
CTRL+SHIFT+U    Shows the Occurrences in File quick menu
Ctrl+Shift+R        Open Resources
CTRL + I               Corrects indentation
Ctrl+M                  Maximize Active View or Editor

Ctrl+Shift+Space

Context Information, If typing a method call with several parameters use this to show the applicable parameter types.
Alt+Left/Right Backward/Forward History

CTRL + I         Corrects indentation

CTL + N            Open new type wizard
CTRL + J           Incremental search
CTRL + SHIFT + L Shows you a list of your currently defined shortcut keys
CTRL+F6          Use to move between open editors
CTRL+F7          Move between views
CTRL+F8          Move between perspectives
To configure the shortcut key, click Window --> Preferences --> General --> Keys


Associate editors with file types:
Window -> Preferences -> General -> Editors -> File Associations

Delete blank line

Find: ^\s*\n
Replace with: (empty)



Eclipse plugins:
Code quality:
Checkstyle: http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update
It is used to enforce Coding Standards in Java Project, such as Naming conventions, Coding problems, Best Practices.


PMD http://pmd.sf.net/eclipse
PMD focuses more on preemptive defect detection.


FindBugs http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/
FindBugs concentrates on detecting potential bugs and performance issues.
Klocwork: http://developer.klocwork.com
Klocwork is aimed at improving software security, quality, and reliability. It is not free, but we can get 30 days free trail. And it is really very cool.


Mylyn: http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/
Mylyn can integrate with issue management systems such as Bugzilla, and it also provides context management, which can hide much of the detail of projects that is irrelevant to the task at hand.
Mylyn is very helpful, especially your main job is to fix defects, or focus on one component of a big project.


ShellEd: http://sourceforge.net/projects/shelled/
EPIC - Perl Editor and IDE for Eclipse http://e-p-i-c.sf.net/updates
The PyDev Update Site http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/
Groovy Eclipse plugin http://dist.codehaus.org/groovy/distributions/update/
Aptana Studio http://update.aptana.com/install/studio/3.2/
http://www.aptana.com


Problem：

Recently, I re-downloaded and reinstalled jdk, and Eclipse always shows this error:
'UnsupportedEncodingException: GBK'. After google search, on http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.tools/msg30710.html,
I found out this is because I installed a JRE only for US English, and I should choose to download and install Multi-language JRE.

Problem:

When we save file, it may print out the error "Some characters can not be mapped using GBK character encoding".
The solution is to change file encoding to 'utf-8':
Select Window -> Preferences ->General
Select  Workspace , set Text file encoding to 'utf-8'.
Select Content Types, set Default encoding to 'utf-8'

Ignore white space when compare two files in Eclipse IDE
When compare two files in Eclipse, many times lines differ only in white spaces, and we don't want to notice this minor difference.
Solution:
Select Window -> Preference -> Compare/Path, and in 'General' tab, select the checkbox --'Ignore white space'.


Reference:
http://www.javaprogrammingforums.com/eclipse/19-useful-eclipse-shortcut-keys.html
http://www.rossenstoyanchev.org/write/prog/eclipse/eclipse3.html
http://tkramar.blogspot.com/search/label/eclipse
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