IBM MobileFirst Studio 8.0 Plug-in for Eclipse Now Available
Edna Morales June 17, 2016
MobileFirst_Platform Announcement Cordova MobileFirst_Studio Eclipse
The IBM MobileFirst Studio 8.0 Plug-in for Eclipse is now available in the Eclipse Marketplace!
Use this plug-in to manage your Cordova projects in the Eclipse development environment.
Installing and Using IBM MobileFirst Studio 8.0 and THyM plug-ins
To install, you must be running Eclipse Mars or later. In Eclipse go to Help -> Eclipse Marketplace and search for IBM MobileFirst Studio and install the 8.0 version. You also need to install Eclipse Thym 2.0.0 through the Eclipse Marketplace.
- Thym will allow you to import, create, and manage your Cordova projects, platforms and plugins.
- The MobileFirst Studio plug-in exposes the various MobileFirst commands in Eclipse IDE. Specifically, it provides the following commands: Open Server Console, Preview App, Register App, Encrypt App, Pull App, Push App, Update App.
Prerequisites:
Make sure you have the MobileFirst CLI installed, as the Eclipse plug-in is dependent on it to run its commands.
You also need to have a MobileFirst Server running, either locally in the developer machine or on Bluemix.
Creating a New Cordova Project in Eclipse
- Click File -> New -> Other…
- Select Hybrid Mobile (Cordova) Application Project in the Mobile directory and click Next
- Name the project and click Next.
- Add the desired platform for your project and click Finish
Importing an Existing Cordova Project
- Click File -> Import…
- Select Import Cordova Project in the Mobile directory and click Next
- Click Browse… and select the root directory of the existing Cordova project
- Ensure the project is checked in the “Projects:” section and click Finish
Adding the MobileFirst Foundation Cordova SDK to your Cordova Project
- In the Project Explorer expand your cordova project, right-click the plugins directory, and select Install Cordova Plug-in
- In the Registry tab of the dialog box, search mfp and select cordova-plugin-mfp
- Click Finish
Using the MobileFirst Commands
To access MobileFirst Foundation’s shortcuts, right-click the root project directory and navigate to IBM MobileFirst Foundation. Here you will be able to select the available MobileFirst commands for your project:
| Menu option | Action | MobileFirst command-line interface equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Open Server Console | When the server definition exists, opens the console so you can view the actions of the specified server. | mfpdev server console |
| Preview App | Opens the app in the browser preview mode. | Opens the app in the browser preview mode. |
| Register App | Registers the app with the server that is specified in your server definitions. | mfpdev app register |
| Encrypt App | Runs the web resource encryption tool on your app. | mfpdev app webencrypt |
| Pull App | Retrieves the existing app configuration from the server that is specified in the server definition. | mfpdev app pull |
| Push App | Sends the app configuration of your current app to the server that is specified in the build definition so you can reuse it for another app. | mfpdev app push |
| Updated App | Packages the contents of the www folder in a .zip file, and replaces the version on the server with the package. | mfpdev app webupdate |
Detailed instructions
Learn more in the Using the MobileFirst CLI in Eclipse tutorial.