Eclipse's Classloader maintains seperate classpaths for each plugin.

A plugin's classpath is derived from its parents classpath and the plugin dependencies. It must be realized that the classpath a plugin has access to is not the same classpath as the environment provides. For example a java application has a different class path than a plugin.

You can configure your classpath stuff in your Manifest:

	parentClassloader=app	The application class loader
	parentClassloader=boot	Your plugin can just see JRE classes (ie the boot classpath)
	parentClassloader=ext	Your plugin can see JRE and JRE extention classes - such as JAI and ImageIO

As noted above - the difficulty with default classloader configuration is that it does not recognize java extensions such as JAI because the jai jar files are in the jre/lib/ext directory.

For more information please consult the Eclipse Help menu.