Eclipse Now Part of the SourceLabs Self-Help Repertoire

EddieC 0 329 Views

SourceLabs is like the L. Ron Hubbard for the software community; it makes a living on developers in need of self-help. The company today added Eclipse projects to Self-Support Suite, its support tool and service for Java and Linux developers.

The suite now counts the copious creations of the open source Eclipse community to its own extensive listing of supported Java projects, which includes the many libraries of Apache Axis, Struts and Tomcat, Hibernate and the Spring Framework. Covered Linux projects include CUPS, DHCP, gcc, ext2/ext3 file systems and ext2 utils, the Linux kernel, MySQL, OpenLDAP, Perl, Samba and many others.

The SourceLabs tool works by scanning systems and sites, discovering all available information about a given project. It then indexes and ranks the data for quick navigation by developers when support is required. Data is matched against a repository and analyzed by “predictive analysis algorithms to automate troubleshooting,” according to a company news release published today. The tool also includes predictive analysis capabilities, the company said, which enable it to “flag potential problems before they impact systems or designs.”

“Now Eclipse developers have reliable way to instantly access the latest information and analytical tools for supporting their Eclipse-driven applications,” said SourceLabs founder and CEO Byron Sebastian. “Our Self-Support system gives users the most effective way to quickly and continually adapt to today's rapidly changing Eclipse software and their own business requirements.”

The Self-Support Suite can be downloaded free for 30 days; pricing for enterprise developers starts at US$99 per user, per year. Pricing for production servers starts at $399 per server, per year and includes 24/7 phone support.

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Following 's note, a practical follow-up for anyone evaluating a third‑party "self‑support" product for Eclipse-based work: treat these tools as assistant systems, not as replacements for standard debugging or change control. The useful question is not just "What they claim?" but "How will this change the day‑to‑day troubleshooting workflow and the data flow out of the environment?"

Suggested validation checklist:

  • Scope: get a precise matrix of supported Eclipse platform versions and common plugins (Maven/Gradle, EGit, WTP, PDE, etc.). Confirm whether workspace, runtime and build-time artifacts are analyzed.
  • Predictive analysis: ask for concrete examples that show true positives, false positives, and missed issues; run a few controlled fault scenarios to see how the system flags them.
  • Data handling: require a clear statement about what is uploaded (stack traces, binary artifacts, config files), anonymization options, retention, and any export formats.
  • Integration: check APIs or CLI hooks for CI, log aggregation and ticketing systems; ability to export data for internal audits.
  • Operational test: run the tool in a staging environment for a defined period and measure time‑to‑resolution and noise rate before any production rollout.

Quick, practical checks that show what the tool will see (Unix examples):

# check the runtime/version (run from the Eclipse install or give the full path)
 /path/to/eclipse/eclipse -version

# list installed bundles/plugins
 ls -1 /path/to/eclipse/plugins | head -n 50

# inspect the workspace log for recent errors
 tail -n 200 /path/to/workspace/.metadata/.log

On Windows, the About dialog and the workspace .metadata.log provide the same signals.

Notes and cautions: predictive systems are helpful for triage but commonly surface pattern matches rather than definitive root causes; expect some false positives. Maintain access to primary sources of truth (Eclipse bug trackers, project issue trackers and community archives) and insist on contractual clarity around support SLAs and data ownership before full adoption.

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