Eclipse Setup to Get Started With Connect IQ

If you must use Eclipse, here's one of the last archive.org snapshots of the Eclipse installation procedure.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210928073353/https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

Here's that software location URL as text that you can copy and paste:

https://developer.garmin.com/downloads/connect-iq/eclipse

If you still have problems, maybe this comment will help: [https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/301452/eclipse-support/1460146#1460146]

Personally I would bite the bullet and use VS Code, as it's much modern and it will also be useful for you if you want to do development in other languages like Python or TypeScript. Plus, you never know when Garmin will just straight up stop supporting Eclipse altogether.

Hello Jim_M_58,

Thank you for your response. It's good to know the form is active and there is help available.

Yes, I have read the Getting Started and Your First App descriptions, but I seem to be missing (unable to find) the steps which would explain which IDE to use (on Mac or Linux) and how to get them configured.

Downloading the Connect IQ SDK Manager doesn't get me very far towards the stage where I can start on Your First App part.

From other couple responses and threads I'm gathering Eclipse is not the recommended IDE any longer, which is fine with me, but from the Getting Started page it doesn't jump out at me which IDE is to be used and how to set it up on Linux or Mac.

Thanks for your help. And I appreciate if you'll have some further tips/suggestions for me. I have a Vivoactive 4 and a ton of programming/software development experience and I'd like to figure it how how to write a nice watch face to begin with, and then some apps.

Kind regards,
H. S. Paradoxus

Hello FlowState,

Thank you very much for your response!

OK, as for Eclipse — no, you are right — I don't have to use it. I only asked about it because I didn't have much to go on, and the screenshot here (Connect IQ Basics -> Your First App, https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/connect-iq-basics/your-first-app/) features a partial screenshot which looks very Eclipsy-ish to me, no?

Last night I was attempting to install Eclipse and the plugin on Linux (Ubuntu), but Eclipse was insisting on that osgi.bundle (which is discussed in the forum), and I haven't read that forum post just yet.

Then, would you please tell me, is it really necessary to install Connect IQ SDK Manager AND install the Eclipse plugin? Say, I'm on my Macbook Pro now, and when I install the Connect IQ SDK Manager, I can't even figure it out where it downloads and installs the libraries and all. Would I need to point Eclipse to the installation location? Is there a way to find out where the libraries are installed on Linux, MacOS, Windows? I suspect I'll be playing with Windows sooner or later.

And, say, if I were to switch over to VS Code, would I still need to install Connect IQ SDK Manager?

Many thanks!

Kind regards,
H. S. Paradoxus

The SDK manager is used if you use Eclipse, VS Code, or even just the command line tools.  It's how you get SDKs and devices.  If you want to use Eclipse, there is a required plug-in, and with VS Code, there is a Monkey C extension

With those, you probably don't need to worry about the pathnames for the current SDK and devices.  The plug-in or extension knows where they are.  The specific path for the SDK will changes, as new versions come out regularly, and with the SDK Manager, you can pick which one is currently used.

If you are just starting, I'd go with VS Code instead of Eclipse as at some point support for Eclipse could end.

I posted a link to ciq basics, where in getting started, it takes you through the steps to get vs code set up.

Unknown said:

Say, I'm on my Macbook Pro now, and when I install the Connect IQ SDK Manager, I can't even figure it out where it downloads and installs the libraries and all.

For Mac, ConnectIQ SDKs and devices are downloaded to

~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ

Specifically:

~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ/Sdks
~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ/Devices

("~" is your home folder.)

The location of the current SDK is in the following file:

~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ/current-sdk.cfg

In Terminal, you can use the following commands to either cd to the current SDK folder or open it in Finder:

cd "$(cat ~/"Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ/current-sdk.cfg")"

open "$(cat ~/"Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ/current-sdk.cfg")"

You can also use the following commands to change cd to/open the root CIQ folder

cd ~/"Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ"

open ~/"Library/Application Support/Garmin/ConnectIQ"

Also, Eclipse has the following menu item to open the SDK samples folder (which is inside the SDK folder):
Connect IQ > Samples

VS Code has a command palette item:
CMD-SHIFT-P > Monkey C: Open Samples Folder