Why is eclipse removing the navigator view?

May 2024 ยท 3 minute read

In the 2019-09 version of Eclipse IDE, it is showing navigator as "Navigator (Deprecated)". Why is it going away? Will there be a replacement? I don't like views that hide or move actual directories around. Sometimes I prefer to see things as they exist in version control, for testing builds, etc.

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4 Answers

Building off of nitind and osoblanco's suggestions: You can make Project Explorer look exactly like the deprecated Navigator view by the following steps:

  • Click Window->Show View->Project Explorer
  • Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the Project Explorer Pane.
  • Click "Filters and Customization..."
  • In the "Pre-set filters" tab, uncheck "Java output folders" (thanks osoblanco for this tip)
  • In the "Content" tab, uncheck "Java Elements"

    • I didn't see any difference between Flat or Hierarchical in the Project presentation, so I left it as the default. I'm using Eclipse IDE for Java Developers version 2020-09. All of my projects use the default package, so I don't really need to see "Java Elements".

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    I guess they figure they are supporting it well enough if you spend time configuring. For me this gets close enough I suppose...

    Hit the 3 dots in the top right. -Set the "Package Presentation" to hierarchical. -Alter Filters and Customization. Uncheck "Java output folders" so that they show.

    You should be able to get the same results with the Project Explorer view--just configure the contents to only show resources and nothing fancier.

    Indeed, it would be a shame to remove the "Navigator" view because it's the simplest way to get an overview with all files. Personally I use it frequently (typically for Git) and I hope it will be kept in future versions.

    However, it is true that it is also possible to do the same thing with "Project explorer" with a bit of customization. To do this, you just have to remove all filters (used to hide certain files) and select all file types to be displayed.

    Here's how:

    open the "Project explorer" view (from the main menu : Window > Show View > Project Explorer)

    in the "Project explorer" view : open "Filters and Customization" ("funnel" icon or "3 dots" icon + "Filters and Customization" )

    in "Filters and Customization" dialog box :

    With this configuration you will see all the files located in the project (whatever the type of project, Java or other).

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