I love the format-on-save plugin for Eclipse! It’s simply wonderful to have your Java source code formatted and your import statements organized as soon as you save file.
However, I’ve recently come across the same issue on different machines: “all of a sudden” (right, that’s what they always say…) that plugin seemed to be gone. All the required files were still in the plugins/features directory, but the icons in the toolbar were gone and so were the corresponding preferences. This happened to me on my MacBook with OS X, on my Win2000 PC after I installed the Jira plugin, and on several Win2000 PCs of my colleagues. For weeks I tried to localize the problem – no success.
Finally, the solution! For whatever reason the plugin became disabled. All I had to do was to click ‘enable’ in Help -> Software Updates -> Manage Configuration.
I have the issue that despite installing it, I do not have an idea how to configure it or make it usable. I have neither any toolbar buttons, nor a preference page that has anything to do with format on save. Is there a hint on what one should see?
Well, older versions of the plugin weren’t configureable – new ones are. Got to Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Format on save. Also, you should see an extra toolbar with the icons “OI”, “SM”, “CI”, and “F”.
Of course, you need to make sure that this plugin didn’t become disabled for some reason. Check Help -> Software Updates -> Manage Configuration. In that overview you can choose to see all disabled plugins (icon in toolbar).