Eclipse IDE -- how do I put my external .jar files into a lib folder?

Question

Eclipse IDE - Can someone please tell me how I can group my external .jar files into a C:\lib folder? I'd really like have them all in a lib folder and not taking up vertical space in the root of my project (see attachment).

I have read some of the similar posts here and tried them but my projects still are not 'seeing' the needed .jar files! It's very frustrating.

I know how to add a Folder but how do I tell Eclipse my .jar folders are in c:\lib so my projects will execute? I'm not even sure if making a lib folder in my project is even related to the fact that my jar files happen to be in c:\lib.

Thanks...

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Answer 1

From your description it sounds to me like you want the jars to stop taking up space in the root of your project. I am not sure how you initially added them but if I am adding external jars this is what I usually do:

Right click on your project, select properties, then Java Build Path, and then click the libraries tab, click on add external jars and then you can select each one individually (which would be a pain) or you can select them all at once if they are in the same folder (hence the c:/lib). Click OK and it should add them into a Referenced Libraries folder like so:

Also, when you open the libraries tab initially, if all of your jars show there, remove them before proceeding as you don't want to import them twice into your application (If that's even posssible, not sure).

Edit

Switch to Package explorer:

Click on Window > Show View > Package Explorer

Update

If you want to add c:\lib to your project do this:

Right click on your project, highlight build path, click Add Libraries..., in the list select User Library, click Next, click User Libraries... on the right. A new window will open. Click New... and then give the library a name such as "clibs". Click OK and then highlight the new library and click add external jars. Select the jars you want from c:/lib and then click OK. Now you can add that User library to any application you want and it will not "pile" up in the root directory under Project View.

Answer 2

That is just eclipse's way of displaying what libraries are on the build path of the project. It doesn't mean that they are on the root of the project, those are just references to those jars ( that maybe any-where on the system ).

A good practice is to get all the jars required by your project and put them in a folder. Next, you can either declare that folder as a library from eclipse and add that library on your build-path or you can just add the jars directly. But they will still be displayed like you are seeing them already. The true path of where these jars are located will be written next to them (like you can see in the attachment C:\selenium....).