Developers tend to favor the integrated development environment that works best for them. That means finding the right tools to perform necessary functions that work seamlessly with their particular environment. There are numerous available plugins for those who prefer the Eclipse IDE, inspiring many lists of the best Eclipse plugins. Because narrowing them down can seem overwhelming, our SOOS team has weighed in to give you a summary of the best eclipse plugins for your convenience.

The Importance of Having Eclipse IDE Tools

The Eclipse IDE allows individuals or teams to develop applications that use various programming languages. It is free, easy to use and well-suited to managing large projects. The Eclipse platform is a highly extensible compilation of plugins that are designed to easily integrate other plugins. Plugins are critical for a variety of essential functions, including customizing code, code suggestions, validation and debugging and applying themes for coding languages, such as C/C++, Java, PERL, PHP, Python, Scala and Ruby. By using Eclipse IDE tools, developers can customize the platform’s functionality to accommodate the most common programming languages while gaining productivity advantages.

The Best Free Plugins for Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is a popular IDE that enables rapid innovation. Free and open source under the Eclipse Public License 2.0, it is powered by a global community of individual contributors, culminating in 66 million lines of code. Highly extensible, it makes it easy to use with numerous plugins to provide improved functionality. The following list includes some of our favorite tools.

Spotbugs

This eclipse plugin is favored for debugging Java code. It uses static analysis to search for everything from bad libraries to hundreds of bug patterns, deadlocks, recursive loops and null pointer references.

Tabnine

Tabnine is an AI-powered tool that suggests code as you type for combining open-source programs within the developer’s code context.

CheckStyle

A code validation tool, CheckStyle constantly inspects Java source code and alerts the user to deviations from defined coding standards in the Eclipse Problems View. It helps teams with defining and applying common rules to ensure uniform compliance. The real value in this software is the shortened feedback loop for errors and warnings.

SonarLint

SonarLint provides instant feedback on common development languages like Java, Javascript and Python. It works as a code analyzer, bug detector and quality editor.

Project Lombok

Lombok is an open-source project that includes Eclipse, Red Hat JBoss Developer Studio, JBoss Developer Studio, MyEclipse and Spring Tools Suite. This Java library performs several functions, including automating logging variables and reducing boilerplate code.

Maven

The Apache Maven plugin functions as a comprehension tool and facilitates software project management based on a project object model. It simplifies Java project building, reporting and documentation. 

CodeMix 3

CodeMix gives Eclipse users many of the Visual Studio code features for developing web apps and interfaces. It enables the use of languages like Angular, React and Vue, along with e-learning courses in the IDE.

Jacoco

This open source Eclipse plugin allows you to determine how much of your code is covered by unit tests. It produces detailed code coverage reports that can be exported in several formats to help you create comprehensive test suites.

Quick JUnit

This widely used open source framework makes JUnit testing easier and faster by providing shortcuts. With this plugin, changing code and creating a JUnit test within Eclipse is as simple as using only one shortcut key.

TestNG

The TestNG plugin for Eclipse is used for running suites, individual or group methods from within the Eclipse IDE. The provided functionality eases test execution and output monitoring.

OsgiEquinoxJ

OsgiEquinoxJ can be considered a productivity aid. It makes hotswaps to support the Eclipse plugin or platform development fast and efficient by eliminating the change -> restart&wait -> check development requirement.

Spring Tools 4

The Spring Tools 4 toolkit is an integration plugin that facilitates Spring Boot development. All the programs can be run from inside the Eclipse IDE. Spring Initializr is a helpful feature that simplifies building and running Spring Boot apps. It makes navigating Spring-specific code effortless with smart code completion and runtime information.

Groovy Development Tools (GDT)

These tools support Eclipse and Maven tooling in the Apache Groovy programming language. GDT  adds multi-faceted functionality through wizards, content editors, debugging, content assist, searching and refactoring.

EGit, Git Integration for Eclipse

Git is one of the most widely used versioning systems, enabling efficient merging, branching and querying against the history by giving the developer access to the full code revision history. An interactive diff view is a plus.

Subclipse

The Subclipse plugin enables Subversion operations within Eclipse. It provides core SVN commit to keep features up to date and a revision graph of all branch commits. The Mylyn connector automatically creates changesets, and the CollabNet Merge Client eases merge tracking.

Eclipse Color Theme

The Eclipse Color Theme plugin solves a number of problems common when switching color themes. It simplifies and expedites managing multiple color themes by mapping a generic format for every editor to specific preferences, preventing having to change the underlying JavaScript or XML.

JBoss

Multiple tools and support for JBoss come with this plugin. It also has Quarkus wizards to create projects in the Eclipse IDE and launch apps in Debug or Run modes. Additional support is provided for related technologies, like Aerogear Hybrid Mobile, Apache Cordova, CDI, Docker, FeedHenry, Freemarker, Hibernate, JBoss AS, JSF and (X)HTML.

EclEmma Java Code Coverage

This highly popular fast development/test cycle tool provides code coverage analysis from within Eclipse. It is non-invasive, as highlighted coverage results appear in the Java source code editor and requires no setup or code modification.

JRebel

Another productivity plugin, JRebel skips the familiar Java rebuild, restart and redeploy cycle to enable instant reload of code changes, allowing developers to work more efficiently without the frustrating stops and starts that impact their flow.

Buildship Gradle Integration

Since Gradle is not integrated with Eclipse by default, this plugin gives developers the ability to code, import or run Gradle projects within the IDE. It supports editing .gradle files using Kotlin or Groovy as if it were integrated by default.

Enhanced Class Decompiler

This plugin integrates the most commonly used decompilers like CFR, FernFlower, JD, Jad and Procyon into the Eclipse IDE. It provides the ability to decompile class files, allowing developers to debug class files in Eclipse without having the source code.

JSON Editor Plugin

The JSON Editor plugin provides the ability to edit, create or navigate JSON files with features like duplicate key detection, validation, text folding, adaptable formatting and syntax highlighting. It provides deep integration with preference pages, tree outlines and file wizards.

Yaml Editor

Helpful for configuring servers and Spring Boot, this fast, small and lightweight plugin offers developers all the usual editing features like file navigation, validation, syntax highlighting and formatting. It also supports Go templates.

AsciiDoctor Editor

AsciiDoc files are a critical part of software development. The AsciiDoctor Editor plugin allows developers to author plain-text notes and documentation, as well as e-books, slide decks, web pages, articles and blogs, combined with the ability to turn them into PDFs with one click. Other convenient features include live previews, syntax highlighting and buttons for tables and hyperlinks.

DevStyle

This free Eclipse plugin provides the ability to apply numerous themes to customize the IDE and make it easier to work with. Color schemes and custom icons are for more than aesthetics. They can make the development environment visuals easier to see and read based on user needs.

SOOS: Vulnerability Scanner, SCA and DAST

SOOS knows what DevSecOps teams need to produce robust, secure applications. These teams depend on widely accessible, affordable and simple tools that integrate seamlessly into their CI/CD processes. Whether it’s providing information on the best productivity plugins for your Eclipse IDE or showing you how easy and cost-effective integrating Software Composition Analysis tools into your environment can be, SOOS is here to help. Our goal is to provide solutions that DevOps professionals want to use without breaking the bank.

When you choose SOOS, you don’t have to wade through multiple solutions. Get started securing your IT environment today.