Projects and Workspaces
An IDL project is a virtual collection of folders, files, and metadata. Projects are used for customizing builds, version management, sharing, and resource organization. Projects also enhance search capability and navigator filtering.
In the IDL workflow, you first create a project using the Workbench. Code files are then associated with the project. Like folders, projects map to directories in the file system. (When you create a project, you specify a location for it in the file system.)
Visually, projects are displayed in the Project Explorer view as a series of folders.
What Is the Workspace?
IDL stores all projects, folders, and files in a single directory called the workspace. You can choose where this directory physically resides on your system, but IDL ensures that all projects are saved in this folder. You can create multiple workspaces, but only one can be open at a time.
To open a different workspace, select Switch Workspace from the File menu. The IDL Workbench will close and reopen with the new workspace loaded.
Why Do I Need a Project?
While the IDL Workbench can edit, run, and debug files that are not included in a project, the project mechanism provides several useful features. Previous versions of IDL implemented projects using a mechanism that provided very little integration with the development environment. The IDL Workbench builds on the Eclipse framework's version of the project mechanism; as a result, projects are tightly integrated into the Workbench. If a file is included in a project, the following Workbench features become available:
- You can locate text in the file using the Search dialog
- You can insert bookmarks in a file in the editor view
- You can insert task markers in a file in the editor view
- Compile errors are flagged in the editor view
- Problems are displayed in the Problems view
In addition, projects can be built into IDL SAVE files or run in a clean IDL session.
