IBM Worklight Developer Edition Eclipse Plugin Hangs fetching org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213.jar.pack.gz

I was trying unsuccessfully to install the IBM Worklight Developer Edition as a plugin into the Eclipse Java EE 3.7 Windows 64-bit edition. I noticed that it was hanging while "fetching org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213.jar.pack.gz". At first I thought the problem was with the mirrors timing out as it kept trying to fetch from different mirrors unsuccessfully. However, I then noticed that it was actually partially downloading the archive, but before it could finish the download the connection to be "reset" and then it would try to fetch the same archive from a different mirror.

I researched the problem thinking the problem could be with my PC, my version of Eclipse, settings in my Eclipse, my connection or even an administrator rights issues on Windows 7. However, all attempts to search and find a solution fell flat. I eventually found a technote from IBM which said that the problem was with my version of Java (i.e. version 7). This technote is titled “P2 (Eclipse Update) cannot be installed using a Java 7 JVM with IBM Worklight and IBM Mobile Foundation“. There appears to be a bug in Java 7 that causes the plugin downloads to fail due to some sorting issue. The solution that IBM states is to “tell” Eclipse to use Java 6 instead and then, once the install is successful, switch back to Java 7. I proceeded to download Java 6 and installed it. I also added the following line to the eclipse.ini file in my Eclipse program directory:
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6

Ultimately this did not fix my problem even after restarting Eclipse. I’m sure if I spent more time on this I would have gotten it to work, but being the impatient person that I am I decided that since the problem was with getting this archive plugin downloaded successfully I decided to just download the problem JAR file for myself and extract it in the Eclipse Plugins folder to see if that provided a much needed quick fix. I searched for “org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213” on the web and found a mirror site which had both the JAR and GZ versions. I downloaded org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213.jar. I then created a new folder in the plugins directory under the Eclipse folder called org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213 as shown below:

Then I used a ZIP file extractor to extract the files from org.apache.derby.core_10.5.1.1_v20120213.jar into the newly created plugin folder. Below is what the extracted folder structure looks like:

After restarting Eclipse and attempting the installation of  the IBM Worklight Developer Edition Eclipse Plugin the installation was finally successful!!! Now it is time to find more about this new developer tool that IBM has made available.