Move the files from the project folder and compile from new location using Eclipse Plugin

Question

So I'm making a plugin and I was wondering would it be possible to move/copy the project from folder A to folder B and then all the compilation is done from folder B?

The purpose is that the project files will be encrypted and I would then move them to folder B and then decrypt them. Then eclipse would handle them normally. Once they save/quit the files it would save a encrypted version back to folder A. Of course folder B would get deleted once eclipse is closed.

Is it possible to make eclipse compile from a different folder that is not in the workspace? using a plugin of course. I will be trying to make it seem like the user is working on the original encrypted files.

Answer 1

I would guess it is possible, but also extremely impracticable. Remember that Eclipse builds every time you save a file, and analyzes the file while you are editing them to provide instant compile errors/warnings. You will probably need to disable autobuild with all its advantages, to avoid encrypting everything all the time. Apart from this it is not really clear to me, how you are editing the encrypted files.

I have a suggestion of an alternative workflow:

• Keep the encrypted files outside your workspace.
• Decrypt the files when eclipse start, and place the decrypted files in the project folder.
• Let Eclipse do business as usual on the decrypted files.
• When Eclipse is closed, decrypt the modified files again and delete the unencrypted ones.

In this way you will only do encryption/decryption once instead of all the time.