go ahead, ask me anything!

I had a little difficulty finding some good documentation on setting up Mylyn 3.7 to connect to a Google Code project in Eclipse Indigo. Maybe I’m dumb, but I don’t have much experience with Eclipse at this point, and even less experience with version control systems. The best I could find was Alex Ruiz’s instructions for setting up Mylyn with Google Code and James Titcumb’s instructions for installing the Mylyn Context Connector. Alex’s instructions are from 2008, and deal with Mylyn 3.0.2 and Eclipse Ganymede. I had originally followed James’ instructions, but later discovered that they were not necessary to connect to a Google Code project. [Note: I had originally linked to James' post in an earlier draft, then removed the link when I discovered those steps were unnecessary. I have returned the link because his post was a resource I found along the way.]

I managed to piece together the following HOWTO using Alex’s instructions and the Mylyn Connector project at Google Code.

Requirements

• Eclipse Indigo
• Mylyn 3.7
• A Google Code project

Setup Mylyn

Mylyn comes pre-installed with the latest releases of Eclipse. The Mylyn FAQ has instructions for installing Mylyn manually if it is not already installed in your Eclipse setup.

Install Google Code Connector

Now that Mylyn is setup, you have to install the connector that will allow you to connect to Google Code and work with the issues in Eclipse.

1. In Eclipse, go to “Help > Install New Software…”.
2. Click “Add…”. Enter “Google Code Mylyn Connector” into “Name” and enter “http://knittig.de/googlecode-mylyn-connector/update/” in “Location”. Click “OK”.
3. Choose “Google Code Mylyn Connector” from the “Work with” menu.
4. Expand “Nightly Builds” and select “Google Code Mylyn Connector Feature”.
   
5. Click “Next >”.
6. Confirm the install details and click “Next >”.
7. Accept the licence agreement and click “Finish”.
8. You will be warned about installing unsigned content. Click “OK” to install the unsigned content, or click “Cancel” to end the installation without installing the unsigned content.

You may be prompted to restart Eclipse to finish the install. I would recommend doing that to be sure that the Mylyn and the Google Code connector load correctly before you start using them.

Connecting to Google Code

Now that you have Mylyn and the Google Code connector installed, connect to your project. For the purposes of these instructions, I will be using the SQLyog Community project. The project URL is http://code.google.com/p/sqlyog/.

1. In Eclipse, open the “Task Repositories” view.
2. In the “Task Repositories” view, click on the “Add Task Repository” button .
3. Choose “Google Code” from the “Add Task Repository…” window. Click “Next >”.
4. Enter your project URL into “Project URL”. Enter a label for the task repository in “Label”. You can use the project name (e.g. “sqlyog”) or any other label of your choosing.
   
   If you want to log into the project, uncheck the “Anonymous” option and enter your Google account information into “User ID” and “Password”. You can also save your password to automatically log in the next time you open Eclipse.
5. Click “Finish”.
6. You will be prompted to add a new query to the Task List for the repository. Queries let you filter down the list of tasks, which is helpful in larger projects.

Queries

You can create a custom query or select from one of the predefined queries in the “Task List”. The queries will appear in your “Task List” with the title of the query and the label of the repository. You can manage the queries from the “Task List”, adding new queries, as well as editing and deleting existing queries.

What now?

Now that you have Mylyn and the Google Code connector installed, and you have connected to your Google Code project, you might want to find out more about Mylyn and start using it to make your life easier. Check out Mik Kersten’s webinar Mylyn 3.0: Code at the Speed of Thought, as well as the Mylyn Getting Started page.