Features

A feature is a way of grouping and describing different functionality that makes up a product. Grouping plug-ins into features allows the product to be installed and updated using the Eclipse update server and related support.

Features do not contain any code.  They merely describe a set of plug-ins that provide the functionality for the feature and information about how to update it. Features are packaged in a feature archive file and described using a feature manifest file, feature.xml. The following is the first part of the manifest for the platform feature:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<feature
      id="org.eclipse.platform"
      label="%featureName"
      version="3.3.0"
      provider-name="%providerName">

   <description>
      %description
   </description>

   <license url="%licenseURL">
      %license
   </license>

   <url>
      <update label="%updateSiteName" url="http://update.eclipse.org/updates/3.3"/>
      <discovery label="%updateSiteName" url="http://update.eclipse.org/updates/3.3/">
   </url>

   <plugin
         id="org.apache.ant"
         download-size="0"
         install-size="0"
         version="1.6.1"/>

   <plugin
         id="com.jcraft.jsch"
         download-size="0"
         install-size="0"
         version="0.1.31"
         unpack="false"/>
	...
</feature>