If you are going to work on an existing project, there are a number of different ways you can import it into Eclipse, depending on how you have obtained the project's source code. To open the Import wizard, navigate to File | Import. Let's go through the options under the General category:
- Archive file: Select this option if the project you are working on already exists in your workspace, and you just want to import an archive file containing new resources to it. The Import wizard will list all the resources inside the archive file so that you can select the ones you wish to import. To select to which project the resources will be imported click on the Browse button. You can also select in which folder the resources are to be included. Click on Finish when you are done. The imported resources will be decompressed and copied into the project's folder.
- Existing Projects into Workspace: If you want to import a new project, select this option from the Import wizard. If the project's source file has been compressed into an archive file (the
.zip,.tar,.jar, or.tgzformat), there's no need to decompress it; just mark the Select archive file option on the following page of the wizard, and point to the archive file. If you have already decompressed the code, mark Select root directory and point to the project. The wizard will list all the Eclipse projects found in the folder or archive file. Select the ones you wish to import and click on Finish. You can add the imported projects to a specific working set and choose whether the projects are to be copied into your workspace folder or not. It's highly recommended to do so for both simplicity and portability; you know where all your Eclipse projects are, and it's easy to backup or move all of them to a different machine. - File System: Use this wizard if you already have a project in your workspace and want to add new existing resources in your filesystem. On the next page, select the resources you wish to import by checking them. Click on the Browse button to select the project and the folder where the resources will be imported. When you click on the Finish button, the resources will be copied to the project's folder inside your workspace.
- Preferences: You can import Eclipse preferences files to your workspace by selecting this option. Preferences file contains code style and compiler preferences, the list of installed JREs, and the Problems view configurations. You can choose which of these preferences you wish to import from the selected configuration file.
Projects that are stored in Version Control Servers can be imported directly into Eclipse. There's a number of version control softwares, each with its pros and cons, and most of them are supported by Eclipse via plugins. GIT is one of the most used softwares for version control; we will discuss it with more details on how to use it efficiently inside Eclipse in Chapter 4, Managing a Project. CVS is the only version control system supported by default. To import a project managed by it, navigate to CVS | Projects from CVS in the Import wizard. Fill in the server information on the following page, and click on Finish.