Creating a Shortcut to Eclipse on the Ubuntu Unity Dock

If you use Eclipse on Ubuntu, you will probably have found that the version in the Ubuntu repositories doesn’t have all the plugins you’re used to, and will have installed Eclipse from a download at eclipse.org

If this is the case, you can create a shortcut launcher to Eclipse using the gnome-desktop-item-edit application enabling Eclipse to be pinned to the Unity Dock. gnome-desktop-item-edit isn’t installed with a clean copy of Ubuntu however. To install run the following:

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

After installation, you can create a new launcher by executing the following command:

$ gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/.local/share/applications

This will cause the following window to be displayed.

Enter all the relevant details into the window (including selecting the icon) and press OK. This will create an Eclipse launcher. If you then navigate to this folder, you can drag and drop the Eclipse icon onto the Dock to create the pinned shortcut to Eclipse.