Importing camunda-bpm-platform into Eclipse

Community Contributions & Discussions
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Just for my personal interest I wanted to inspect the source code of the camunda platform.
Also to learn how it realy works.
Therefore I did the following steps:

Step 1: Cloning from https://github.com/camunda/camunda-bpm-platform.git
Step 2: Adjusting maven settings.xml as described in CONTRIBUTING.md
Step 3 Creating a local branch based on tag 7.15.0
Step 4 Building skipping tests: mvn clean install -DskipTests

At a first try I used Aopts OpenJdk 11.
But the build failed with following error:

Failed to execute goal on project camunda-jboss-subsystem
Could not resolve dependencies for
project org.camunda.bpm.jboss:camunda-jboss-subsystem:jar:7.15.0
Could not find artifact com.sun:tools:jar:1.6 at specified path
C:\opt\Jdk\Adopt\jdk-11.0.10+9/…/lib/tools.jar

What I really not understand is: why the build is searching for tools.jar version 1.6.
As I remember jdk 1.6 is the default by maven, when no jdk spec is found.
My remark: “tools.jar” was removed from JDK 9 upwards.

At a second try with Adopt JDK 8 the build completed successfully.
But when importing the maven project into Eclipse I got a couple of
errors like “Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration“.
I think this is a problem with Eclipse maven plugin m2e.
But another problem remains:
Again “tools.jar:1.6” is missing by Eclipse:
Missing artifact com.sun:tools:jar:1.6 Resource: /camunda-jboss-subsystem/pom.xml

The question is: What are the correct steps to import the camunda platform into Eclipse?
(Nearly every project I cloned so far from gitHub I could build and import without any problems.)
I think somebody must have made it, because within the distribution I found
the Eclipse config files “formatter.xml” and “codetemplates.xml”.
Any hints?
Thx Stephan

Used environment:
Eclipse Java Enterprise 2021_03
Apache Maven 3.6.3
Java version: 1.8.0_275, vendor: AdoptOpenJDK
runtime: C:\opt\Jdk\Adopt\jdk8u275-b01\jre
OS name: “windows 10”, version: “10.0”, arch: “amd64”, family: “windows”

2

Hello Stephan,

Welcome to the community and thank you for your interest in the project!

Please keep in mind that in the past year(s) we merged several projects to the platform repo which increased tangible the volume of the repo and the number of the subprojects.

My remark: “tools.jar” was removed from JDK 9 upwards.

We still support and develop with JDK 8, you can have a look at all of the supported environments in the documentation: Supported Environments | docs.camunda.org

But when importing the maven project into Eclipse I got a couple of
errors like “Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration“.
I think this is a problem with Eclipse maven plugin m2e.

Yes, a couple of subprojects are reporting the issue in Eclipse IDE. However, this does not prevent successful build or execution of tests there.

But another problem remains:
Again “tools.jar:1.6” is missing by Eclipse:
Missing artifact com.sun:tools:jar:1.6 Resource: /camunda-jboss-subsystem/pom.xml

I do not see the issue in my workspace. Maybe you can double check if Java 8 is used and not some default version from the workspace.

image

Step 4 Building skipping tests: mvn clean install -DskipTests

Did you manage to successfully build the whole project?

The question is: What are the correct steps to import the camunda platform into Eclipse?

From your description, it seems that you are on the right track, just double check the JDK version.
Actually, I cannot imagine a use case where you need and use all of the subprojects at once in your IDE. There are just too much subprojects now and some of them are rarely touched.
I would actually do not recommend for someone that want to get familiar with the project to explore (import) all at once. I would suggest more gradual steps, starting from the engine, spring boot starter, or external task client depending on the interest and goal.

Nevertheless, we are always happy to receive feedback. In case you notice that something can be improved or simplified, please do not hesitate to elaborate further or even make a contribution for it.

If you are interested, have a look at our Contribution guide.

Best regards,
Yana

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