LABS GALLERY: Eclipse Plug-in Taps into Force.com
by Jeff Cogswell
Installation
Installing the Eclipse plug-in for Force.com is a simple matter of using the built-in Eclipse software update.
Link to Force.com
Once installed, the plug-in includes a page that links you to the Force.com developer site.
Credentials
Creating a new Force.com project requires that you provide your credentials, which can be obtained from the Force.com site. (A starter level is available for free.)
Metadata Components
Metadata components play a fundamental part in the Force.com applications and infrastructure. When you create a new project, you can specify which components your application needs.
Apex Support
The plug-in enhances the editor to support Force.com’s Apex programming language.
On-the-Fly Code Testing
The plug-in also includes an interesting capability that lets you test out blocks of code on the fly right on the Force.com servers.
Database Exploration
You can explore the databases and schemas right from within Eclipse, and execute queries against the databases.