Project description

Overview

This projects exemplifies the development of Eclipse 4 RCP Application with bndtools. It enables

• local development with Eclipse IDE and bndtools
• continuous building and ProofOfPerformance (pop) with GitHub actions
• running inside Debian based Docker container with web browser accessible UI

Multiple minimalistic Eclipse RCP project types are demonstrated

1. headless application - targeted for terminal usage
2. Eclipse SWT dialog UI
3. Eclipse 4 RCP Product with SWT UI application

See the project for more information on using, building and more!

Local Development

Prerequisites:

Tool	Version	Notes
Java JDK	21	Any distribution, e.g. Eclipse Temurin. Must be on PATH or JAVA_HOME set.
Gradle	wrapper	./gradlew / gradlew.bat included — no separate install required.
bnd CLI	7.3.0	Needed for the SWTBot command below. The Gradle build resolves bnd automatically; download the standalone jar from Maven Central or GitHub Releases.
Graphical display	—	Required for the SWTBot test suite (Windows desktop or X11 on Linux).

Build

# Build all bundles
./gradlew build

# Export platform-specific products
./gradlew export.app.ui_linux.gtk.x86-64
./gradlew export.app.ui_win32.win32.x86-64
./gradlew export.app.ui_macosx.cocoa.x86-64
./gradlew export.app.ui_macosx.cocoa.aarch64

# Export all three application types for Linux (used by CI/Docker)
./gradlew export.app.ui_linux.gtk.x86-64 \
          export.12_equinoxapp_linux.gtk.x86-64 \
          export.ui_linux.gtk.x86-64

Run exported artifacts

After the export Gradle task completes, launch the generated product directly:

# Linux — Eclipse 4 RCP product
./example.rcp.app.ui/generated/distributions/executable/eclipse

# Linux — Headless Equinox application
./example.rcp.headless/generated/distributions/executable/eclipse

# Linux — SWT dialog application
./example.rcp.ui/generated/distributions/executable/eclipse

On Windows, replace eclipse with eclipse.exe.

Run the test suite (SWTBot UI tests)

The SWTBot test suite launches the full Eclipse 4 RCP application in-process and exercises it through the SWTBot API.

# Windows — from the workspace root
java -jar /path/to/biz.aQute.bnd-7.3.0.jar runtests \
  example.rcp.app.ui.swtbot.tests/swtbot_win32.win32.x86-64.bndrun

# Linux / macOS — substitute the matching .bndrun when available
java -jar biz.aQute.bnd-7.3.0.jar runtests \
  example.rcp.app.ui.swtbot.tests/swtbot_*.bndrun

Note: Use bnd runtests, not bnd test or bnd run.
bnd test silently skips .bndrun files (only processes bnd.bnd project files);
bnd run does not inject the -tester bundle.

Outputs after a successful run:

Path	Contents
reports/TEST-*.xml	JUnit XML report (generated and parsed by CI / IDEs)
reports/TEST-*.html	Human-readable HTML summary (generated)
reports/summary.xml	Run-level summary with duration (generated)
example.rcp.app.ui.swtbot.tests/screenshots/	PNG screenshots captured at key test steps

Screenshot filenames use these generated patterns:

Pattern	Captured at
01_main_window_open_{screen,shell,swt}.png	After the main application shell becomes active
02_table_verified_{screen,shell,swt}.png	After the Sample Part table row-count assertion passes
03_before_quit_{screen,shell,swt}.png	Immediately before the File → Quit sequence

Screenshots persist across osgi.clean=true restarts because they are written outside the bnd-managed _rt/ directory (resolved from the bundle jar location: <project>/screenshots/).

Try it out (Docker installation required)

Run the published Docker Hub image

The latest image is published at Docker Hub. Pull it and start the application:

# bash
docker pull klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest
docker container run -d \
  -p 5800:5800/tcp \
  klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest

# PowerShell
docker pull klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest
docker container run -d `
  -p 5800:5800/tcp `
  klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest

Branch builds are also published with a Docker-safe branch tag. For example, a build from branch feature/docker-branch-tags is available as feature-docker-branch-tags:

docker pull klibio/example.bnd.rcp:feature-docker-branch-tags
docker container run -d \
  -p 5800:5800/tcp \
  klibio/example.bnd.rcp:feature-docker-branch-tags

Each branch tag is replaced by the newest successful build from that branch. Timestamp tags remain available for immutable builds.

Build the container image from source

# Build from source (exports all three Linux application types internally)
docker build -t klibio/example.bnd.rcp .

Launch the locally built image:

# bash
docker container run -d \
  -p 5800:5800/tcp \
  klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest

# PowerShell
docker container run -d `
  -p 5800:5800/tcp `
  klibio/example.bnd.rcp:latest

Access the UI via web browser — http://localhost:5800

1. Connect to VNC
2. Use the context menu (right-click the desktop) to launch applications

License

Licensed under the Eclipse Public License v1.0.