Recipe 2.3 Accessing Any Project File

2.3.1 Problem

Many perspectives will hide files; you want to get access to a specific file (or files) in your project.

2.3.2 Solution

The Navigator view in the Resource perspective gives you access to all the files in a project, without exception.

2.3.3 Discussion

Some perspectives hide files. For example, Eclipse stores project information in an XML file named .project, but many views, such as the Java perspective's Package Explorer, will hide that file. The .project file for a sample project open in the Resource perspective is shown in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-4. Using the Resource perspective

Some Java-oriented perspectives also support the Navigator view. Many Java programmers ignore the Resource perspective completely, but some Java-oriented views will hide various files from you. To get access to them all, don't forget about the Navigator view; it's always available in the Resource perspective as well as in some of the Java perspectives.