Sharing your plug-ins easy as 1-2-3

"Hey, this is a cool plug-in, where did you get it from?" is a question that I hear quite often and to which the answers most people provide are a google search, a vague reference to the eclipse market place, or a lengthy email with links to p2 repos and sentences to explain which element should be selected. With any of these solutions there is a lot place for errors, especially if you are trying to have the same version.

Since Indigo, p2 provides the ability to answer this question in 3 easy steps using the import / export functionality. Let's see how this works

Step 1 - Create a description file

Using the File > Export > Install > "Installed Software Items to File" wizard, select the plug-ins that you want to share, and save these to a description file.
In the screenshot below I've decided to share both the Groovy for Eclipse plugin and the Remote System Explorer plugin.

Step 2 - Share the description file 

The description file created, share it using your favourite social media, or just simply email.

Step 3 - Import the description file 

Upon reception of the description file, go to File > Import > Install > "Install Software Items from File" wizard, pick the file to install from and just follow the steps. You may also want to uncheck the "install latest version of selected software". This will cause the selected items to be installed from the remote location.

Conclusion

This showed how easy it is to share details of your install with others. It works well for ad-hoc sharing. For anything more complex like keeping in sync all the members of a team, I would instead recommend the usage of Yoxos from EclipseSource (I am *not* affiliated with EclipseSource) that offers a solution dedicated to solving this problem.