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HOWTO: EPF installation in modern Eclipse

The "original" EPF tool (https://www.eclipse.org/epf/downloads/tool/epf1.5.0_downloads.php) is based on Eclipse 4.2.2 (Juno) from 2012, i.e. very old platform which has troubles running on newer JDKs.

To install on newer Eclipse platforms, I used the info in Eclipse Bugzilla reports https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=340143 and https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=539204 that the EPF actualy has a p2 repository at http://download.eclipse.org/technology/epf/composer/p2release/EPF-p2Repo-1.5.2/ .

Installation

Works, to a large extent, as is standard in Eclipse; the following has been tested on both the Eclipse 4.6.3 "Neon" (as mentioned in the above bugzilla report) and latest Eclipse 2018-12 release (I used the EMF Eclipse package for Linux 64bit as a base):

  1. open Help > Install New Software
  2. add the p2 repo: use "Add..." button, enter e.g. "EPF p2 repo" in Name and "https://download.eclipse.org/technology/epf/composer/p2release/EPF-p2Repo-1.5.2/" in Location.
  3. uncheck "Group items by category", otherwise the EPF parts do not show up
  4. click Select All and Next
  5. now, if Eclipse says that it cannot perform and that an alternate solution will be sought, don't panic -- eventually, a Install Remediation Page shows up, on which stick with the default option "Keep my installation" despite the fact that EPF Product Feature etc. will not be installed.
  6. click Next, let the EPF plugins install, and reboot Eclipse as recommended
  7. when you switch perspective to Method Authoring, under File > New you will now find that Method Library and other EPF content type options are available

During short testing, I found no issues in both creating content and loading and editing an existing EPF project.

Recent JDKs

As long as Java 8 is used as the JDK to run Eclipse, things are fine.

With more recent JDKs (Java 10, 11), older Eclipses like the Neon 4.6.3 will fail to start (digging in the log file, java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/annotation/PostConstruct shows up). To get it running, you need to follow the workaround described in https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBIDE-22417?_sscc=t -- add the line --add-modules=java.se.ee at the end of eclipse.ini. Nevertheless, error dialogue "Decoration Calculation" has encountered a problem keeps popping up when working with the process library tree; fortunately, can be closed (also via Esc) with apparently no harmful consequences.