Why can't I see new features in my Eclipse update site?

Question

In a nutshell: I've updated some features in my Eclipse update site, but the new versions are not showing, only the existing (installed) ones are.

Background

I have written a number of plugins (transformation extensions) in RSA to enable model-driven development (turning a platform-independent UML model into Java).

In order to share these with fellow developers, I created an Eclipse update site. I have 1 feature per plugin (yes I realize this is overkill, but I was unable to install some plugins when they were grouped together in a feature). After building the update site, I checked the whole site into source control - other developers just checkout the site, add it as a local update site in RSA, and install all of the plugins.

I have since updated a number of plugins (incrementing their version), updated their owning features (incrementing the version), rebuilt the update site and checked it in. This has worked fine - other developers just checkout the updated site and install the new versions of the plugins.

Problem

I have recently updated the plugins again, updated the features and rebuilt the update site, but the new versions of the features do not appear in the update site (e.g. via Help->Software Updates->Available Software)! It's as if it's cached the old update site somewhere, because it's still showing the versions I have installed. The versions of the features and plugins in the built site are all the correct (new) versions.

I have tried:

• Refreshing the update site
• Removing the update site and adding it back
• Uninstalling all of the plugins and the update site (when I add the site again, it still only shows the old versions)
• Deleting all files in the update site except .project and site.xml and rebuilding (after I noticed the artifacts.xml still mentioned the old versions), still no luck
• using RSA 8.0.4 (which already had the old versions installed as well)

Has anyone come across this before or knows why this is happening?

I'm using IBM Rational Software Architect 7.5.5.2 (based on Eclipse 3.4.2).

Answer 1

Ok, I actually got it to work, but it's not exactly the most elegant solution - if anyone can think of an alternative solution (or reason why this is happening) I would appreciate it!

All I did was

• delete all files in my update site, except .project and site.xml
• remove all features from my site
• add the features back to the site
• build the site
• remove update site from the Available Software section in RSA (it complained that the site didn't exist before I did this)
• add the site again

Once I did this, the new versions appeared and I was able to update them successfully. I'm still not sure if the first step is necessary or not though...