## Deploying a Feature

Once versions are synchronized, we can package our feature in the format fit for publishing.

First you have to set up the build configuration. The build configuration includes information about the files and directories that should be included in the feature for each individual plug-in and fragment. There may be some design-time files and directories that should not be shipped. See Build Configuration for details.

Then you can use PDE's Export Deployable Features wizard to build and export the feature. This way you are shielded from Ant scripts and your workspace is never polluted with build by-products.

1. Select File>Export...>Deployable Features.
2. Select the feature(s) you want to export.

The wizard will build all the features selected and their included plug-ins and fragments.

If the 'single deployable zip file' option is selected, everything will go into one zip file, which can then be unzipped into any Eclipse product.

If the 'update JAR archives' option is selected, the wizard will create a JAR for every feature selected. The JAR name will be of the format: <feature_id>_<feature_version>.jar, and will be placed in a features/ sub-directory of the directory you specified in the wizard. The wizard will also create a JAR for every plug-in or fragment included in the feature. The JAR name will be of the format <id>_<version>.jar, and will be placed in a plug-ins/ sub-directory of the directory you specified.

The alternative would be to build features manually:

1. Right-click on the feature.xml file for your feature project and choose 'Create Ant Build File'. This will generate a build.xml file.
2. Select the build.xml file and choose 'Run Ant...'
3. In the Ant build script wizard, select the target(s) you want to run. See Generating Ant Scripts for details.