# Plug-in Development Environment Overview

The Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) provides a rich set of tools to create, develop, test, debug and deploy Eclipse plug-ins, fragments, features, update sites and RCP products.

PDE also provides comprehensive OSGi tooling, which makes it an ideal environment for component programming, not just Eclipse plug-in development.

Some of the PDE tools include:

- Form-Based Manifest Editors: Multi-page editors that centrally manage all manifest files of a plug-in or feature.
- RCP Tools: Wizards and a form-based editor that allow you to define, brand, test and export products to multiple platforms.
- New Project Creation Wizards: Create a new plug-in, fragment, feature, feature patch and update sites.
- Import Wizards: Import plug-ins and features from the file system.
- Export Wizards: Wizards that build, package and export plug-ins, fragments and products with a single click.
- Launchers: Test and debug Eclipse applications and OSGi bundles.
- Views: PDE provides views that help plug-in developers inspect different aspects of their development environment.
- Miscellaneous Tools: Wizards to externalize and clean up manifest files.
- Conversion Tools: Wizard to convert a plain Java project or plain JARs into a plug-in project.
- Integration with JDT: Plug-in manifest files participate in Java search and refactoring.

To get started, try out the following cheat sheets:

Creating an Eclipse Plug-in
Creating a Rich Client Application

Looking for more? Discover the latest features in the What's New section.