SDiC: Context-based retrieval in Eclipse

Abstract

While working in an IDE, developers typically deal with a large number of different artifacts at the same time. The software development process requires that they repeatedly switch between different artifacts, which often depends on searching for these artifacts in the source code structure. We propose a tool that integrates context-based search and recommendation of source code artifacts in Eclipse. The artifacts are collected from the workspace of the developer and represented using ontologies. A context model of the developer is used to improve search and give recommendations of these artifacts, which are ranked according to their relevance to the developer. The tool was tested by a group of developers and the results show that contextual information has an important role in retrieving relevant information for developers.