JBoss Tools is a set of plugins for Eclipse that complements, enhances and goes beyond the support that exists for JBoss and related technologies in the default Eclipse distribution.

Until now, early builds of JBoss Tools were released at a regular cadence leading up to the release of a particular version. Anybody could download, integrate the plugins in Eclipse, test, and provide feedback. JBoss Tools Community Acceptance Testing (CAT) seeks to obtain feedback from the community on early builds of JBoss Tools.

So what’s different ?

• Allows JBoss Tools team to engage with individuals who can look at the release schedule and features coming in a particular release, test them, and provide feedback
• JBoss Tools team will be paying close attention to the bugs filed by CAT members and ensuring they are responded/reacted to
• Your name will be included in the JBoss Tools release notes
• Help us decide if JBoss Tools is ready for release

Any feedback is relevant ? Stability, performance, usability, regression, RFE, anything literally.

Ready to get started ?

The simple process and other details are available at tools.jboss.org/cat/.

Learn more about the motivation behind all of this in a short interview with Max Andersen:

You might also wonder the name looks very familiar! Having actively participated in NetCAT and driven FishCAT, this was a very natural choice. All the more relevant because Red Hat truly believes in community powered innovation.

Max also blogged about it here.

And in case you are wondering, JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) is a fully bundled Eclipse distribution which not only includes the majority of JBoss Tools but also all its needed dependencies and 3rd party plugins allowing for an easy one-click and no-fuss installation. JBDS is released along with the GA version of JBoss Tools. So if you are participating in JBoss Tools CAT, you are helping us test JBoss Developer Studio as well.

Tech Tip #5 shows how to get started with JBoss Tools and WildFly!