Managing Designer User Configuration

Software AG Designer is, by default, configured to support a single user with full read/write permission to the Eclipse installation area.

The following three locations in the Eclipse installation are important and must be considered when you configure Software AG Designer.

The install area, which is the location where the Eclipse Platform is installed. The default location is Software AG_directory \Designer\eclipse.

The configuration area, which is the location where Eclipse stores essential runtime metadata and cached data in general. The default location is Software AG_directory \Designer\eclipse\configuration.

The instance area, which is also known as the workspace. The default location is <user-home-dir>\workspace98.

These default locations might vary if,

During installation, Designer/Eclipse creates a configuration directory within the Eclipse installation. Each time Designer/Eclipse starts, it verifies that the configuration directory is writable. If it is not writable, by default, Designer/Eclipse creates a private configuration folder in the user home directory. The size of the configuration area varies depending on the features installed. The default location for a private configuration area is:

<user-home-dir>/.eclipse/<product-id>_<product-version>_<hashcode>_<os-ws-arch>/configuration

The user home directory is determined by the user.home Java system property. The product id and version are obtained from the product marker file .eclipseproduct under the Eclipse install.

A non-default configuration area can be defined by setting the osgi.configuration.area system property. This property can be set by the end user when starting Designer from a shortcut or, from the command line. It is convenient to set the property either in the launcher.ini file or in the config.ini file at the base configuration location.

In most cases, there is no need to change the default behavior. However, after installing Software AG Designer in a Windows environment, you may find that attempts to start Designer from a shortcut or from the command line result in an "access denied" error. In these cases, Eclipse has failed to determine that some files in the configuration area are not writable.

To resolve these issues, use any one of the following approaches:

Define a non-default configuration area by setting the osgi.configuration.area system property. This is the preferred approach.

If you have administrator privileges, when starting Designer from a shortcut, right-click the shortcut and select Run as administrator.

If you want the Designer installation to be shared by multiple users, ensure that none of the users have write privileges to the shared configuration area. In this case, set the osgi.configuration.area system property and restrict access to the configuration area.

For example, define the configuration area in the config.ini file by adding the system property as follows, osgi.configuration.area=$user.home$/.eclipse/Designer_12345. Define the configuration area in the shortcut or the command line, by adding the following Java option: -vmargs -Dosgi.configuration.area=$user.home$/.eclipse/Designer_12345

Note:
When Designer/Eclipse starts, it checks the shared configuration area for changes. Migration Wizard prompts you to reapply the changes made to the private configuration area.

For detailed information about the Eclipse configuration directory and runtime options, refer to the Eclipse documentation at: