| | | | Version: 0.0.2 Support Eclipse Version: 3.3 License: Free GPL Development Status: Beta Company: Bastian Krol
| |  | Home Page |  | Plugin Support |  | Discussion Forum | |
| | Update Site URL: http://startexplorer.sourceforge.net/update |
Every now and then when working with Eclipse you'd like to examine a file or a folder inside the Eclipse workspace with your Windows Explorer. Or you edit a configuration file in an Eclipse editor which references another file in the filesystem and you wonder what's in that file or you would like to open it in a different application.
This plug-in gives you a convenient way to do all this by adding a few entries to Eclipse's context menus. Also, you can start a Windows explorer from within a text (xml, ...) file by selecting a text region that comprises a filesystem path. Lastly, you can select a text region that comprises a filesystem path and open the default system application for that file.
This plug-in adds three new options to Eclipse's standard context menus. The first one ("Show resource(s) in Windows Explorer") is added to the context menu for resources (files, folders) in views such as Navigator, Java Package Explorer and similar. It enables the user to open a Windows Explorer showing the selected resource. The second and third are added to the context menu for selected text regions in editor views. The plug-in interprets the selected text region as a filesystem path. If this path denotes a folder, the plug-in can open a Windows Explorer for it (this option is labeled ("Start a Windows Explorer in this path"). If the aforementioned path refers to a file rather than a directory, the plug-in can start the default Windows system application for it (this option is labeled ("Open this file with system editor").
Actually, StartExplorer is a bit smarter when handling selected text regions than the last paragraph may give the impression. If you try to open a Windows Explorer for your selection it doesn't matter whether you selected a path denoting a folder or a file. If the selected text region points to a file, the parent directory of that file is shown in the Windows Explorer, just as you would expect. Furthermore, if the path ends with an incomplete path segment, the last segment is discarded. Example: In your text file (or XML or whatever) you have the path C:pathtosomedirectoryfile.xyz. Now you select just C:pathtosomedire and start a Windows Explorer for that path. The plug-in recognizes that C:pathtosomedire is not a valid path and tries the parent directory C:pathtosome. If this is a valid, existing directory, a Windows Explorer pops up showing C:pathtosome.
This plug-in is for Windows users only.
Added on: 06-May-2008
|