Today I tried adding and configuring a custom splash screen to a custom Eclipse application, and found a number of pitfalls, which is why I decided to write a blog post summarizing the required actions.

Adding the Splash Bitmap

The splash image must be saved as a bitmap file named splash.bmp with 24 bits per pixel and should have dimensions of approximately 500×330 pixels. Save this file in the root of your product-defining plugin (which is usually named tld.domain.product.rcp). Specify this plugin in the Splash section of your .product file.

Enable Progress Reporting

To enable progress reporting on your splash screen, an .ini file for customizations must be defined. This is normally done in your RCP plugin, which contains a plugin.xml file declaring the extension org.eclipse.core.runtime.products. Under this extension, your product is defined. The product node typically contains child nodes with properties of your product, such as the name of your application (property appName). Here another property has to be added with the name preferenceCustomization and the value plugin_customization.ini. Create this file in the root of your RCP plugin if it does not exist already. To enable progress reporting for your splash screen, add the following line:

org.eclipse.ui/SHOW_PROGRESS_ON_STARTUP=true

Adjust Positions of Progress Bar and Progress Message

Now comes a pitfall: In older Eclipse versions, the positions of the progress bar and progress message could be adjusted in the product file. The following UI is provided for that:

However, in newer Eclipse versions the values of this UI are not used anymore! In order to configure the positions, properties have to be added in the previously mentioned plugin.xml file of your RCP plugin as children of your product node.

The positions are added in the form of comma-separated lists in the following format:

x, y, width, height

As an example, consider the following entries:

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<property name="startupProgressRect" value="0,290,498,10"/>
<property name="startupMessageRect" value="5,310,493,15"/>

The coordinates are relative to the top left corner of the splash screen image. Additionally, the color of the progress message text can be changed with the property startupForegroundColor. The value is a hexadecimal color code with two hex digits for red, blue and green, respectively. For example, black font color can be specified with the following code:

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<property name="startupForegroundColor" value="000000"/>

Relevant documentation can be found here:

• Customizing a product
• IProductConstants