Now someone called “voidstate” posted a little trick in the CakePHP Google Group which makes it possible to get code completion in the view for helpers. For this purpose you have to create a PHP file somewhere in your project (it doesn’t matter where) with the following content:

<?php
 // stop page loading
 exit; 

// reference helpers so Eclipse provides code completion
 $ajax = new AjaxHelper();
 $cache = new CacheHelper();
 $form = new FormHelper();
 $html = new HtmlHelper();
 $javascript = new JavascriptHelper();
 $number = new NumberHelper();
 $session = new SessionHelper();
 $text = new TextHelper();
 $time = new TimeHelper();
 ?>

As soon as the file is stored, you should have code completion. Thanks to voidstate for this trick!

So my workaround was to remove the project(s) and the repository from Eclipse, and to recreate them using the new repository url. It works, but it is a bit cumbersome (fortunately you do not have to do that very often).

But now I found a better solution. There exists a “Relocate” wizard for this purpose, which makes it really easy. To start it you have to select a repository in the “SVN Repository Exploring” perspective and with a right mouse-click you get the “Relocate” menu entry. The first dialog shows some explanations plus the affected projects:

In the next and last step you can specify the new url:

That’s it.

<buildSpec>
    <buildCommand>
        <name>net.sourceforge.phpeclipse.parserbuilder</name>
        <arguments>
        </arguments>
    </buildCommand>
</buildSpec>
<natures>
    <nature>net.sourceforge.phpeclipse.phpnature</nature>
</natures>

with:

<buildSpec>
    <buildCommand>
        <name>org.eclipse.wst.validation.validationbuilder</name>
        <arguments>
        </arguments>
    </buildCommand>
    <buildCommand>
        <name>org.eclipse.php.core.PhpIncrementalProjectBuilder</name>
        <arguments>
        </arguments>
    </buildCommand>
</buildSpec>
<natures>
    <nature>org.eclipse.php.core.PHPNature</nature>
</natures>

And voilà, the project was now recognized as a PHP project, and both Outline view and auto-completion worked.

Thanks to Seva Lapsha for this tip!