Eclipse com.sun.mirror.apt.* Problem

When I'm working with Google GData Java client API in Eclipse environment, I found a numerous problems and errors. The problems were found in package com.google.gdata.data.apt which uses a number of classes from com.sun.mirror.apt package, actually a standard package of recent JDK bundled. And Eclipse recognize the package and all the classes as undefined ones.

Well, I have already followed the GData "Get Started" instructions and added all libraries needed. After googling for almost an hour - which is kinda waste of time.- finally I found out an answer. And it had to do with my understanding of Eclipse inclusion of JRE and JDK library.. surprising enough given that it is too basic !

I always assume that "Java library" in Eclipse workspace is a JDK one if we have it installed. But I was wrong, since Eclipse only include JRE library - not the JDK part.

So, what I'm going to do is to add tools.jar - a jar that has com.sun.mirror.apt.* classes - from JDK distribution into my Eclipse project.

To add it as external jar, here are the steps :

• Navigate to Project=>Properties menu
• Click on Java Build Path in left side navigation
• Click at Libraries tag
• Click on Add External JARs
• Navigate into your JDK library folder, for example C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_15\lib
• Choose tools.jar and click Open button
• Click OK
  
• Done
  

Figure 1 : JRE jars and the added JDK's tools.jar

So for those who also develop Java application using GData Java API with Eclipse, I write this article in a hope that it can be a time savior for you facing the same problem.

Thank You for Visiting,