Installed the Eclipse PMD plugin (written by Philip Graf) from here. I tried to associate a custom PMD rule classes JAR but couldn't find a provision for it. This JAR contains custom rule classes (that extends AbstractJavaRule indirectly).
So is there any way to configure eclipse-pmd plugin to accept this custom JAR?
My custompmd.jar has this structure:
custompmd.jar
└─com/pmd/custom
└─AvoidHardcodingRule.class
└─AvoidCatchWithoutLogErrorRule.class
└─etc...
Simply putting it in plugins directory didn't help. One of the SO question suggests a solution but that's for a different plugin.
[UPDATE]
I am currently thinking of editing one of the eclipse\plugins\ch.acanda.eclipse.pmd.BLAHBLAH.jar, add custompmd.jar into the lib folder and updating META-INF\MANIFEST.MF file by appending the JAR information in the Bundle-ClassPath: section. Is it the right practice as patching the plugin JAR seems ugly to me?
[UPDATE]
The above approach didn't work.
Any of you Eclipse gurus know how to crack it?
[UPDATE]
I cracked it by myself.
[UPDATE]
Although the below solution works, it is a maintenance nightmare. Whenever, I change the custompmd.jar, I have to update the plugin JAR as well everytime, which is tedious. Is there a clean and neat solution?
You can use your custom rule classes if you add your jar as an Eclipse plug-in fragment to your Eclipse installation. The host of the plug-in fragment must be ch.acanda.eclipse.pmd.core.
To convert the jar to a plug-in fragment you have to modify the file MANIFEST.MF file and add a few manifest headers. The following is a complete manifest of an Eclipse plug-in fragment:
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
Bundle-Name: Custom PMD Rules
Bundle-SymbolicName: org.example.customrules
Bundle-Version: 1.0.0
Fragment-Host: ch.acanda.eclipse.pmd.core;bundle-version="1.4.1"
Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: JavaSE-1.7
You can choose your own values for the headers Bundle-Name, Bundle-SymbolicName and Bundle-Version. The value of the header Bundle-ManifestVersion must be 2. Fragment-Host must contain the symbolic name of the host bundle ch.acanda.eclipse.pmd.core and optionally the version of eclipse-pmd you have installed. Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment specifies the minimum execution environment the plug-in fragment requires. Its value is JavaSE-1.7 if you compiled it with Java 7 or JavaSE-1.8 if you used Java 8.
Once you changed the manifest of your jar you can copy it into the folder dropins of your eclipse installation. Your plug-in fragment is installed when you start Eclipse.