FAQ How do I create an external tool builder?

An external tool builder is an external tool that runs every time the projects in your workspace are built. End users can add external tool builders by selecting a project in the Navigator, choosing Properties, and then going to the Builders page. On the Build Options tab, you can specify whether the builder should run on autobuild, manual build, or on Clean. In most cases, running external tool builders during auto-builds is too disruptive because they are too long running.

As with ordinary external tools, you can define your own type of external tool builder by creating a new launch configuration type. In your launch configuration declaration, you must specify the category for external tool builder launch configurations:

   <launchConfigurationType
      name="%AntBuild"
      delegate="com.xyz.MyLaunchDelegate"
      '''category="org.eclipse.ui.externaltools.builder"'''
      modes="run"
      id="com.xyz.MyLaunchType">
   </launchConfigurationType>

See Also:

FAQ_What_is_a_launch_configuration?

FAQ_How_do_I_add_my_own_external_tools?

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This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.