How to Create a New Java Project in Eclipse for Selenium automation

1. Eclipse Overview

Most people know Eclipse as an integrated development environment (IDE) for Java.
Eclipse is created by an Open Source community and is used in several different areas, e.g. as a development environment for Java or Android.
The Eclipse project is governed by the Eclipse Foundation. The Eclipse Foundation is a non-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the Eclipse projects and helps to cultivate both an open source community and an ecosystem of complementary products and services.
Eclipse roots go back to 2001. Today it is the leading development environment for Java with approx. 65% marketshare.
Eclipse can be extended with additional functionalities. Several Open Source projects and companies have extended Eclipse with additional components. It is also possible to use Eclipse as a basis for creating general purpose applications (Eclipse RCP).
This description focuses on using Eclipse as a Java development environment.

2. Getting started

2.1. Java

Eclipse requires an installed Java Runtime. I recommend to use Java 7 (also known as Java 1.7) or Java 6.
Java comes in two flavors, the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and the Java Development Kit (JDK). The JRE contains only the necessary functionality to start Java programs, while the JDK contains in addition the development tools.
Eclipse contains its own development tools, e.g. Java compiler. Therefore for this tutorial it is sufficient to use the JRE.
The JDK is required if you compile Java source code outside Eclipse and for advanced development scenarios. For example if you use automatic builds or if you develop web development. These scenarios are not covered in this tutorial.
Java might already be installed on your machine. You can test this by opening a console (if you are using Windows: Win+R, enter "cmd" and press Enter) and by typing in the following command:

    
java -version
   

If Java is correctly installed you should see some information about your Java installation. If the command line return the information that the program could not be found, you have to install Java. A Google search for "How to install Java on ..." should result in helpful links. Replace "..." with your operating system, e.g. Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X, etc.

2.2. Install Eclipse

To install Eclipse download the package "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" from the websitehttp://www.eclipse.org/downloads and unpack it to a local directory.
The download is a "zip" file. Most operating system can extract zip files in their file browser, e.g. Windows7 via right mouse click on the file and selecting "Extract all...". If in doubt, search via Google for "How to unzip a file on ...", again replacing "..." with your operating system.
Use a directory path which does not contain spaces in its name, as Eclipse sometimes has problems with that.
After unpacking the download, Eclipse is ready to be used; no additional installation procedure is required.

2.3. Start Eclipse

To start Eclipse double-click on the file eclipse.exe (Microsoft Windows) or eclipse (Linux / Mac) in the directory where you unpacked Eclipse. The system will prompt you for a workspace. The workspace is the place where you store your Java projects (more on workspaces later). Select an empty directory and press Ok.

Eclipse will start and show the Welcome page. Close the welcome page by pressing the "X" beside "Welcome".

3. Eclipse UI Overview

Eclipse provides Perspectives, Views and Editors. Views and Editors are grouped intoPerspectives. All projects are located in a workspace.

3.1. Workspace

The workspace is the physical location (file path) you are working in. You can choose the workspace during startup of Eclipse or via the menu ( File → Switch Workspace → Others. All your projects, source files, images and other artifacts will be stored and saved in your workspace.
You can predefine the workspace via the startup parameter -data path_to_workspace, e.g.c:\eclipse.exe -data "c:\temp".
Please note that you have to put the path name into double quotes.
To see the current workspace directory in the title of Eclipse use -showLocation as an additional parameter.

3.2. Perspective

A Perspective is a visual container for a set of Views and Editors.
You can change the layout and content within a Perspective, for example by opening or closing Views orEditors, changing their size and position and more. Eclipse allows you to switch to another perspective via the menu Window → Open Perspective → Other.
For Java development you usually use the Java Perspective, but Eclipse has much more predefinedPerspectives, e.g. Debug, Git Repositories, CVS Repositories.
A common problem is that you mis-configured your Perspective, e.g. by closing a View. You can reset aPerspective to its original state via the menu Window → Reset Perspective.

3.3. Views and Editors

A View is typically used to navigate a hierarchy of information or to open an Editor. Changes in a View are directly applied to the underlying data structure.
Editors are used to modify elements and are typically text editors. An Editor can have code completion, undo / redo, etc. To apply the changes in an editor to the underlying resource, e.g. Java source file, you have to save.

3.4. Java Perspective and Package Explorer

The default Perspective for Java development can be opened via Window → Open Perspective → Java.
On the left hand side, this perspective shows the "Package Explorer" View which allows to browse your Java projects and to select the components you want to work on via double-click.
For example to open a Java source file, open the tree under src, select the corresponding .java file and double-click it. This will open the file in an Editor.
The following picture shows the Eclipse IDE in its standard Java perspective. The "Package Explorer" is on the left. In the middle you have the open Editor for a Java source file. If several Editors would be open, they would be stacked in the same place and you could switch between them by clicking on the next Editor. All editors share the same part of the Eclipse IDE; this part is called the "editor area".
To the right and below the editor area you find more Views which were considered useful by the developer of the perspective. For example the "Console" view shows the output of System.out statements in your code.

3.5. Linking the package explorer with the code editor

The Package Explorer allows displaying the associated file from the currently selected editor. For example if you working on Foo.java and you change in the editor to Var.java then the corresponding file will be selected in the the "Package explorer" View.
To activate this behavior, press the button "Link with Editor" in the "Package explorer" View.

3.6. Problems view

Sooner or later you will run into problems with your code or your project setup. To view the problems in your project you can use the "Problems" View which is part of the standard Java Perspective. If it is closed you can open it viaWindows → Show View → Problems.

You can configure the content of the "Problems" View. For example, to display the problems from the currently selected project, select "Configure Contents" and set the Scope to "On any element in the same project".

4. Create your first Java program

The following describes how to create a minimal Java program using Eclipse. It is tradition in the programming world to create a small program which writes "Hello World" to the console. We will adapt this tradition and will write "Hello Eclipse!" to the console.

4.1. Create project

Select from the menu File → New → Java project. Enter de.vogella.eclipse.ide.first as the project name. Select the flag "Create separate folders for sources and class files".

Press finish to create the project. A new project is created and displayed as a folder. Open thede.vogella.eclipse.ide.first folder and explore the content of this folder.

4.2. Create package

Create a new package. A good convention is to use the same name for the top package and the project. Create therefore the package de.vogella.eclipse.ide.first.
Select the folder src, right click on it and select New → Package.

4.3. Create Java class

We will now create a Java class. Right click on your package and select New → Class.

Enter MyFirstClass as the class name and select the flag "public static void main (String[] args)".

This creates a new file and opens an Editor to edit the source code of this file. Write the following code.

    
package de.vogella.eclipse.ide.first;

public class MyFirstClass {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
  System.out.println("Hello Eclipse!");
 }

}
   

4.4. Run your project in Eclipse

Now run your code. Right click on your Java class and select Run-as → Java application.

Finished! You should see the output in the console.

4.5. Prepare to run program outside Eclipse (create jar file)

To run your Java program outside of Eclipse you need to export it as a jar file. A jar file is the standard distribution format for Java applications.
Select your project, right click on it and select Export.

Select JAR file, select next. Select your project and maintain the export destination and a name for the jar file. I named it myprogram.jar.

Press finish. This creates a jar file in your selected output directory.

4.6. Run your program outside Eclipse

Open a command shell, e.g. under Microsoft Windows select Start → Run and type cmd and press enter. This should open a console.
Switch to your output directory, by typing cd path. For example if your jar is located in c:\temp type cd c:\temp.
To run this program you need to include the jar file in your classpath. The classpath defines what Java classes are available to the Java runtime. You can add a jar file to the classpath with the -jar option.

    
java -classpath myprogram.jar de.vogella.eclipse.ide.first.MyFirstClass
   

If you type the command from above and are in the correct directory you should see the "Hello Eclipse!" output on the console.

Congratulations! You created your first Java project, a package, a Java class and you ran this program inside and outside Eclipse.

Source Link:http://www.vogella.de/articles/Eclipse/article.html