Fishtail

Are you constantly searching the web for resources as you program?
(E.g.: Are you searching for information about how to integrate with Eclipse?)

What it does

Fishtail uses the context of a currently active Mylyn task to formulate web searches about the code of interest. Searches are performed for a variety of categories, such as articles, tutorials, and examples of code use. Fishtail ranks the resultant hits, presenting the most context-relevant ones in its view. Keywords can be added to augment the automatically formed search criteria.

view

Using the tool

Fishtail performs searches automatically when a Mylyn task is active. Search results may be shown either in the Fishtail view (Window > Show View > Other... > Fishtail > Fishtail) or in an in-place dialog (Alt+F9). The hits shown for a category can be broadened by Alt+click-ing on the category or selecting the category and clicking the toolbar icon.

Automatic background searching can be disabled through a preference setting. A manual search may be triggered through the icon indicated in the figure.

A preference setting allows particular hosts to be blacklisted, preventing future display of hits from those hosts. Hosts may also be blacklisted through a toolbar icon.

Requirements

Download

Update Site: cs.ubc.ca/labs/spl/projects/fishtail/update/

Does Fishtail work?

We want to understand if Fishtail is finding useful information. Fishtail uses the Mylyn monitor to track how it is being used. Periodically, you will be requested to fill out a short survey and to submit your usage data as a means to evolve and improve the tool. Providing this information is voluntary. No personally identifiable information will be tracked or submitted.

People

Please direct comments/feedback to Nathan at nhapke(a)cs.ubc.ca

License

Fishtail is licensed under the Eclipse Public License.
Fishtail depends on some external libraries. Some of these libraries are consumed from Eclipse's Orbit project, without modification. All dependancies are provided on the update site for your convenience. These libraries are subject to the Apache License, Version 1.1 and/or Apache License, Version 2.0 and/or Eclipse Public License as appropriate. This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

Updates

Dec 7/07, 4pm: Updated the search algorithm.