Mylar Frequently Asked Questions

Setup

Working with Context

Tasks and Repository Connectors

Integration

Java Development

Key Limitations

 

What is the recommended Eclipse configuration for running Mylar?

Recommendations for Mylar 0.5.0:

 

What are the effects of Mylar on Eclipse performance?

The goal is for Mylar to have no noticeable effect on Eclipse's speed or memory usage, you do not need to increase the amount of memory Eclipse runs with to use Mylar, and any performance issue should be reported as a bug.  The current performance profile is:

  1. Mylar only runs if a task is active, and has no impact on Eclipse if no task is active.
  2. Task context models have negligible memory overhead. 
  3. When a task is active, additional view refresh is required to update the views based on interest model changes.  This should not be noticeable on Windows where refresh is very quick, but could be more noticeable on other platforms.
  4. The time to activate a task context is dominated by the time it takes Eclipse to open the editors in the context.  You can set the preference for how many editors to open in the Mylar preference page (e.g. setting to 1 will dramatically reduce activation time, but also remove the benefit of having open editors correspond to the task context).  You can also turn off editor management entirely in the Mylar Tasks view pull-down.
  5. Eclipse startup is slowed down by (4) if a task is active when Eclipse is shut down.
  6. The low priority background searches that the Active Search view runs can be noticeable on slower machines.

 

Why does Mylar fail to install or update?

For supported platforms and known limitations please see http://eclipse.org/mylar/dl.php

The most likely reason is that you are using an incompatible VM (e.g. JDK 1.4), in which case you'll errors like the following in your log file.  To check JDK version that Eclipse was launched with to to Help -> About Eclipse SDK -> Configuration Details and verify that the java.vm.version is 1.5.  Mac users should refer to the last bug 1163477 for instructions on how to change the 1.4 default.

Root exception: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/eclipse/mylar/tasklist/MylarTasklistPlugin (Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)

This can also be the result of using an incompatible version of Eclipse.  Separate versions and update sites exist for Eclipse 3.1 and for the latest 3.2 milestone), in which case you may see errors like the following in your <workspace>/.metadata/.log file or in a Mylar view:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.eclipse.ui.internal.dialogs.FilteredTree.getFilterControl()Lorg/eclipse/swt/widgets/Text; org.osgi.framework.BundleException: The activator org.eclipse.mylar.java.MylarJavaPlugin for bundle org.eclipse.mylar.java is invalid

If you have verified that you are using the right version of Eclipse but are still seeing install problems it could also be that there is a Mylar feature configuration problem.  In either case case the easiest thing to do is uninstall any old versions and update to the latest Mylar.  Your tasks won't be lost, by default they are stored in the <workspace>/.mylar/tasklist.xml file which will be read next time Mylar starts correctly. First, uninstall the old version of Mylar using Help -> Software Updates -> Manage Configuration.  You need to first Disable on all Mylar features by right-clicking them, allow Eclipse to restart after the last is disabled, and after restart.  Then ensure that the 3rd toolbar button is pressed (figure below) so that you see the disabled features to uninstall, and Uninstall them using the popup menu.  If you don't uninstall the the Update Manager will think that you have the latest and tell you that there are no updates. Note that manually removing the plug-ins and features can lead to Eclipse configuration errors. After uninstalling update Eclipse by adding the correct update site specified at: http://eclipse.org/mylar/dl.php, and after that automatically or manually updating will install the correct version.

 

Configuring Eclipse's Internal Browser on Linux

Mylar Task Management features make user of the Internal Browser.  These instructions have been tested on Fedora Core 4

  1. Run Mozilla (not firefox) to confirm that it works.
  2. Confirm the location of your Mozilla install ( /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.12 on our test box)
  3. Set necessary environment variables in <home_directory>/.bashrc, adding the following 3 lines
        MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.12
        LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME
        export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  4. Log out and log in again (or type "source .bashrc" at the prompt)
  5. Start Eclipse and test the internal web browser

If you are get exceptions indicating missing libraries, check that the paths are accurate and that you in fact have the libraries requested. For example, on our test box a library was still missing after these steps. The libstdc++.so.5 was being reported as missing. To solve this problem, find an rpm online that will install the missing legacy library. In our case we found necessary rpm (compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm) on rpmfind.net using their search facility.  References: SWT FAQ

 

 

Why did my tasks disappear?   

Either because Mylar failed to install or update, or because there was a problem reading the task list.  By default Mylar keeps your task list in <workspace>/.mylar/tasklist.xml.  If you move workspaces, and have not changed the Mylar data directory via the Task List preference page, the new location will be used when Eclipse restarts (hit Restore Defaults on that page to copy tasks back to the default location).  If your tasks ever disappear please report this as a critical bug, and check the .mylar folder for a tasklist-backup.xml file, which will contain the previous state task list.  Make sure to copy it somewhere it before adding any tasks or queries or restarting Eclipse because it will get overwritten on any modification.

If your workspace folder is not backed up it is a good idea to either backup the tasklist.xml file manually or periodically use File -> Import/Export ->  Other -> Mylar Task Data.  Note that when restoring an previous tasklist.xml file you should first close Eclipse.

 

Which Focused UI features can I turn off?

All of them.  When no task is active neither are any of Mylar's features.  When working with task contexts Mylar's Focused UI features are all optional and in general configurable.  The following table summarizes how the key features can be toggled.  Additional configuration options are under the Mylar and General -> Appearance preference pages.

UI Mechanism Example/description Toggle using
Interest filtering Package Explorer Apply Mylar button on view toolbar
Interest decoration Bolding of landmark elements Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Label Decoration
Content assist Ranking of interesting elements Eclipse 3.2: Java -> Editor -> Content Assist -> Work in Progress -> turn off Mylar, turn on Java
Eclipse 3.1: set the Java editor to be default for .java, not the Mylar Java editor
Active change sets Grouping of changes by tasks Preferences -> Mylar -> Team
Editor management Auto opening/closing of editors Preferences -> Mylar -> Editor Management
Active views Active Search and Hierarchy Only on if view is active

 

What if Mylar doesn't support my task/bug/issue tracker?

First, do a search of the open repository connector requests and vote for the corresponding bug if your tracker is found, or create a new report.  In the meantime, you can work with those reports (but not with queries) via the web integration.  To create a task from any web-based repository:

 

How do I upgrade to multiple task repository support?

Bugzilla Client users follow these steps after updating in order to migrate to multiple repository support from version 0.4.6 or older

 

Why is only one task appearing in Bugzilla queries?

This is a symptom of the wrong Bugzilla version selected in your Mylar Bugzilla preferences ( Window -> Preferences -> Mylar -> Bugzilla Client ). For example, if you are connecting to the Eclipse.org Bugzilla then the 2.20 option must be selected.

 

Is there any configuration needed to make Mylar work with my JIRA repository?

Yes, JIRA SOAP/RPC services have to be running on the server.  For additional details see the Requirements at: http://jira-dashboard.tigris.org/

 

How does the Mylar Task List relate to the Eclipse Tasks view?

The SDK's Tasks view is used for showing markers such as 'todo' tags which indicate a local problem with a resource, similar to a compiler warning.  As such, these 'tasks' are at a much lower level of granularity than than Mylar's tasks, and one task could involve cleaning up multiple todos.  In order to make working with only the markers in a particular task context, e.g. for clean-up before committing, the Apply Mylar filter is available for both the Problems and the Tasks views. 

 

Does Mylar have any limitations with Subversion clients?

Mylar's Active Change Set integration, which allows you to work with changes per-task, support's the Eclipse SDK's CVS integration, and should work with any source repository client that extends Eclipse's Change Set support.  As of March 2006 no Subversion clients support change sets, and as such this feature is not available for those clients. 

 

 

Why does nothing show up in the Active Search or Active Hierarchy?

As you work and elements become landmarks (bold decoration), and these elements populate the Active Search and Active Hierarchy views.  To force an element to populate the views manually make it a landmark by right-clicking or hitting Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow. 

 

Why do elements appear twice in the content assist popup?

In Eclipse 3.2, Mylar uses extended content assist processors in order to rank and separate the elements in the current task context.  If both the Mylar and the Java proposals are enabled in the list visible below you will see duplicates, so disable "Java Completions" and "Java Types" since the Mylar versions will provide those elements.  Running New -> Mylar -> Recommended Preferences will do this for you automatically, or you can set toggle them manually in the preference page.  As of Eclipse 3.2M5 applying this change requires a restart.

 

How do I stop declarations from showing up in the Package Explorer?

If you don't like Mylar's constant showing of Java members in the Package Explorer, select the drop-down menu, then "Filters..." and enable the "Mylar Java Declarations Filter".  It will then stick in the menu in case you want to toggle between modes.  Note that this will hide interest information about members that aren't in your current file (e.g. showing you which methods are landmarks) so this mode is not recommended, but can be useful for 1024x768 screen resolutions.

 

Why does nothing show up in the Active Search or Active Hierarchy?

As you work and elements become landmarks (bold decoration), and these elements populate the Active Search and Active Hierarchy views.  To force an element to populate the views manually make it a landmark by right-clicking or hitting Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow.