Tutorial

Programmers perform certain activities, for example fixing bugs. It usually involves searching for the right classes and / or the relevant statement. Frequently the work of the developer is disrupted by other things, such as incoming phone calls, meetings and urgent software issues.

Eclipse Mylyn is a software component packaged with the Eclipse IDE. The idea of Mylyn is to preserve the current state of the Eclipse IDE in a so-called task.

Eclipse Mylyn allows the developer to record his activities in a task context while he is working.

When switching between tasks, open editors are restored. Mylyn can also filter information in the IDE. For example, the package explorer can be set to show only the files relevant for the current task.

This sounds simple but helps finding the right information much faster, when you activate a task which you worked on earlier.

Mylyn is a very active project and provides lots of helpful tools. This text describes the usage of Mylyn for managing local tasks.

It is also possible to integrate Mylyn with bug tracking solutions. In this case, tasks and the content of these tasks can be shared among developers. This is even more powerful but will not be described here, as there are lots of different bug tracking systems and the integration to them is rapidly changing.

The "Task List" View is part of the standard Java Perspective. In case you closed the view, you can re-open it via Window → Show View → Mylyn → Task List.

To create a new task press "New Task" (or right-click → New → Task. Select the "Local" repository, as shown in the following screenshots.

To start working on a task, select the button "Activate task". This will remove all elements from your "Package Explorer" View as you have not worked on anything yet.

Remove the task filter by clicking the "Focus on Active Task" button in the "Package Explorer" View. Now all files are displayed. If you open a file, it will be added to the context of your task.

Once you have identified all necessary elements, you can focus again on the task to filter out the unnecessary elements.

If you have to switch to another task you simply can activate it. The context of the task will be restored.

Mylyn allows you to export and import your local tasks. Select your categories or tasks, right click on them and select "Export and Import" from the context menu.

www.eclipse.org/mylyn/ Mylyn Homepage

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