This article is made using Eclipse 3.7 and its famous plug-in dedicated to GIT called Egit.
When working on a java project, eclipse is a nice way to implement, code and debug. It is even nicer when it can be used with a version controller like GIT. Since Eclipse 3.5, GIT has its own plug-in called EGit. Let’s be honest. It rocks. The interface is well-thought, and you can manage easily your GIT repository through friendly interface. In case you get crazy with some error messages, you can still easily fallback to the good-old command terminal, and everything made will still be visible in Eclipse. That is really a nice tool
However, when starting a new Java project from an existing GIT repository, you can easily import your project by doing Files -> Import. Then in the import window, select Git -> Projects from GIT.
And in a couple of clicks, you are able to clone existing repositories, and add new projects. The problem is that you generally need to import the code as a general project, and under Eclipse it will be recognized as a Java project.
There is a workaround for this problem after importing a GIT code as a general project. You first need to modify the .project file in the project repository and modify it as below to make it a Java project.
<projectDescription>
<name>my_project</name>
<comment></comment>
<projects>
</projects>
<buildSpec>
<buildCommand>
<name>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javabuilder</name>
<arguments>
</arguments>
</buildCommand>
</buildSpec>
<natures>
<nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature>
</natures>
</projectDescription>
Then, restart eclipse. So now the project became a Java project, but there are still no JRE libraries.
In order to do that, modify .classpath as follows:
<classpath>
<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER"/>
</classpath>
What remains to do, depending on the project is to add at least a source folder. This can be done by right-clicking on the project, then New -> Source Folder.
And you are done.
