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Running Plug-ins Locally in iDempiere

This guide explains how to configure and run your plug-ins locally in iDempiere. Whether you're developing a ModelValidator, Callout, Process, or Report, this tutorial will help you get your plug-in running smoothly.

🎯 Goal​

After setting up your plug-in project, you might wonder: How do I make it work within iDempiere?

To avoid merge conflicts and keep customizations maintainable, plug-ins should be developed outside the core. This tutorial shows you how.

✅ Prerequisites​

Before continuing, we strongly recommend reading:

This guide explains best practices for clean, modular plug-in development.

⚙️ Workflow​

After creating your plug-in project, open the MANIFEST.MF file.

1. Add Dependencies​

Switch to the Dependencies tab and add:

  • org.adempiere.base
  • org.adempiere.plugin.utils

2. Enable Singleton and Activator​

Switch back to the Overview tab:

  • Check the box: This plug-in is a singleton
  • Choose Incremental2PackActivator as the activator class (recommended).

If you include a 2Pack.zip in your META-INF folder, the activator automatically processes the pack.

3. Activate the Plug-in​

Open your Run Configurations, select the server.product launcher, and go to the Plug-ins tab.

  • Search for your plug-in and enable it.
  • Set Auto-Start to true.
  • Set Start Level to 5 or higher.

Then launch the server using the server.product configuration.

To verify that your plug-in is active:

  1. In the Eclipse Console window, type ss and press Enter.
  2. Find your plug-in in the list and confirm that its state is ACTIVE.

If your plug-in does not start automatically, you can start it manually using:

start <bundle_number>

🚀 Additional Features​

Automatically Start Your Plug-in
  • Set Autostart = true in Run Configurations.
  • Or check "Activate this plug-in when one of its classes is loaded" in MANIFEST.MF.

For integrating ModelValidators, Processes, Callouts, and more, refer to the other plug-in development guides in the documentation.

🔚 Conclusion​

By following this guide, you can configure and run your plug-ins locally in iDempiere. For the next step, learn how to distribute and install your plug-ins in the Distributing Plug-ins guide.