Eclipse: Organising Files

Question

I want to import a project that I'm planning to build upon. The problem is that it is very messy; with source files, class files and libraries under one directory. How would I organise these files using Eclipse?

I know you can change the source folder and output folder, but when I do change the source folder, the files that I want inside it do not physically move to that folder. Output folder is fine, though. Also, I would like a separate folder for libraries. I'm not sure how I would go about this, however.

Here's how I would like it:

src: This folder will contain source files.
bin: This folder will contain binary (class) files.
lib: This folder will contain external libraries.

Answer 1

I know you can change the source folder and output folder, but when I do change the source folder, the files that I want inside it do not physically move to that folder

You are right: Eclipse won't move those files.

The simplest way to organize those files is to:

• copy the sources in your 'src' folder.
• copy the libraries in a 'lib' folder at the same level than src.
• create an Eclipse project from existing source by selecting the parent directory of 'src' (that will generate your .project and .classpath right above your src directory).
  Don't select the default location (which would create the project in your Eclipse workspace).
• you should see the lib directory right along src in your project. You can add any jar within it as library.