Eclipse RCP: NullPointer on getSite().setSelectionProvider(...) - eclipse

As I have done the following tutorials:
http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseRCP/article.html
http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseJFaceTable/article.html
http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseJFaceTableAdvanced/article.html
I wanted to combine the JFace table viewer (plugin from 2nd and 3rd tutorial) and the ToDo application from the first tutorial. In the JFace table example(s) there is a View extended from a ViewPart. In this the call:
getSite().setSelectionProvider(view)
inside the createPartControl method is fine and works.
But when I do the same in the other tutorial it does not work, I get a NullPointerException. The first article creates a plugin and then transform it using features and products into an Eclipse 4 application. So the classes in the application are not derived from a 'Part'. They are referenced using the application model and only use the annotation #PostConstruct.
Why is it that I get this NullPointerException?
And really, how can I get the SelectionProvider service linked to the Workbench?
I also tried to use PlatformUI.getWorkbench() but it says that the workbench does not yet exist.
Any help highly appreciated.
Thanks.

Eclipse 4 (e4) applications are completely different from traditional Eclipse 3.x style applications.
In an e4 application you cannot use a lot of things that are used in a Eclipse 3.x application - so you need to check which style the example you are using is based on. The e4 application has access to a lot of new features that are not available in a 3.x application.
In an e4 application you inject the ESelectionService to get and set the current selection.

Related

Eclipse e4 migrating 3.x plugin to 4.x?

I have been working with Eclipse RCP for over a week now, and I've now been given an Eclipse plugin written in 3.x, which I need to migrate to 4.x. I'm using a book called Eclipse 4 RCP by Lars Vogel which has a small section on this, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm to do.
I'm trying to do this throught the use of the compatiblity layer. It mentions to add a couple of features for this (org.eclipse.rcp, org.eclipse.emf.ecore, org.eclipse.emf.common) and your ready to go, but I don't exactly know what I'm to do here. Like do I add these to the existing product file of the 3.x plugin I've been given, or do I create a separate e4 project and point to that. Many of the tutorials I read are a bit vague with the details and its a shame there's no proper step by step guide for beginners with this. Any help would be great.
Probably, you should be creating a separate e4 plug-in project for this. And where you have to configure your extensions/extension points in e4 ways.
Basically, like creating a new project.
If you want to migrate your Eclipse 3.x RCP application to the Eclipse 4 programming model, you can't directly reuse existing plugin.xml based user interface components, e.g. Views or Editors based on the definition in plugin.xml .
Components based on the plugin.xml file must be adjusted to avoid inheritance of Eclipse classes and to use the programming model based on #Inject . They also must be contributed to the application model.
Components which are not directly based on the plugin.xml file must be adjusted if they use Eclipse 3.x singletons, as for example Platform or PlatformUI , to access Eclipse API
you may want to take a look at this page: https://www.eclipse.org/community/eclipse_newsletter/2013/february/article3.php

Can I use Eclipse Dependency injection (DI) in normal Java Model?

I am trying to write Java model which will act as model for Eclipse RCP. This model I should be able to run without UI also (i.e in command line). I wanted to use (Explore, I am new to this) DI supported by e4. Can any one guide me on this?
As described in Eclipse bug 323075 the e4 RCP startup currently always wants to create a Window. So it does not look like you can use it for a 'headless' RCP.

Migrating eclipse 3.x application application to eclipse 4.x

I'm working on a product which is an RCP application based on Eclipse 3.x api. Now we are trying to move it to Eclipse 4.x. We are using some internal classes in our code. I've already read the tutorial provided by Vogella about migrating to Eclipse 4.x from 3.x, but I'm still not getting how to start.
We want to take advantage of the new Eclipse features, my main question is that we have good number of views, layouts in our old code, so what should be the approach I should follow. Also is there a way to create an application model from my older application using 3.x API.
I'm stuck and not getting how to proceed.
this really depends what you are trying to do. Do you just want to update your IDE? Or should the project be based on the e4 platform.
I recently updated a project from 3.x to the new IDE. This works very good, the compatibility layer does a good job and you are able to run the application with minimal changes. However if you do this, you cannot use the benefits of the e4 platform.
If you want to move your application to e4, thats more work to do. Mostly you will not want to touch all the old code, so there is a possiblity to have 3.x and e4 plugins run together in your application. Thats done with the e4 bridge and wrapper classes for old code. Most of the IDE views and editor are also still based on 3.x, so if you use them, the e4 bridge is also a good way to incorporate them.
Some information can be found here:
http://tomsondev.bestsolution.at/2011/06/10/how-to-apply-the-e4-programming-model-to-3-x/
http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2012/06/18/migrating-from-eclipse-3-x-to-eclipse-4-e4/
Andy
I've read both the tutorial.But I am stucked and got too much confused as to where to start from. Basically 3 features are there
1. css styling of widgets(which i understood and did a bit of it)
2. to introduce dependency injection in my code
3. to put the application model
What approach I should follow?
This document helped me in deciding which strategy to adopt. http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/fa/17403/ for migration.Indicates clearly which strategy you should adopt based on your existing code structure.Hope it helps

Eclipse e4 and plug-in development

Is it possible to create Eclipse plug-ins (e.g view parts) using Eclipse e4 incubator?
Or is e4 only useful for 'window-based' applications?
I already checked How can I create a view using the E4 programming model to be a plug-in for Eclipse 4.2 or above?, but this did not give me an useful answer.
Add:
I want to create an Eclipse plug-in and not a standalone rcp application.
I'm not sure what exactly you want to achieve.
Option 1:
You want to write a plug-in for an e4 RCP application:
You can do this (e.g., contribute ViewParts to an e4 application model) via a model fragment.
Basically, instead of extending the org.eclipse.ui.views extension point in Eclipse 3.x you create an application model fragment file in your plug-in and reference this in an extension to the extension point org.eclipse.e4.workbench.model.
In the model fragment, you define the parts, commands, etc. you want to contribute.
See for example these tutorials for more details:
http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2012/06/26/eclipse-4-e4-tutorial-part-3-extending-the-application-model/
http://www.vogella.com/articles/Eclipse4Modularity/article.html
Option 2:
You want to write a plug-in e4 style for Eclipse itself.
As far as I know this is not possible straightforward, because currently, the Eclipse IDE cannot be enhanced with fragments (at least that is what https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=376486 indicates ...)
But when that works, see Option 1.
Until then, you'd have to use the classic extension points. You can still write your view using the POJO/Injection approach of e4, but you need to use the 3.x to e4 bridge. You can get some hints from
http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2012/06/18/migrating-from-eclipse-3-x-to-eclipse-4-e4/ .
In particular, see the paragraph starting "The third option is to use the 3.x e4 bridge from the e4 tools project"

Why can't I find Java desktop application in Netbeans 7.1

I downloaded Netbeans 7.1 with all bundle from http://netbeans.org/downloads and installed it successfully on Windows 7.
But I can't find Java Desktop Application which should be under Java category when add new project as 7.0 does.
Where is it? Or what is the substitute one in 7.1? I need something to create GUI by dragging components.
Thanks.
Look here: http://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=204661
Support for [B]SAF (JSR 296, basically the framework that was behind your "Java Desktop Application" project template) has been abruptly dropped (for no valid reason, let me add).
However, as Bill says in his answer, it is not necessary to use the SAF in order to visually design a form. NetBeans swing-designer (known as Matisse) can be used to design any JFrame, JDialog, JPanel, etc.
You just have to
Right click -> New -> JFrame Form...
and you're ready to drag-and-drop!
(The features you'll be missing are the extra bells and whistles that such framework provided, like SAF Actions, windowing persistence, simplified management for long running Tasks and related visual feedback [now you have to get your hands dirty with the SwingWorker class], etc)
Java Desktop refers to an effort to create a standard or library (libraries) that never really produced anything of significance. I think its likely that they finally removed it from Netbeans.
Its easier to just create a new Java Application project, don't bother with a main, then create a new JFrame Form. That class will have a main for you to use, and you can also design the frame in the form. You can also create JPanel Form classes. Note: you can do this in just about any project in netbeans, there is nothing special about the projects for them.
its better to use NetBeans 7.0 for full support of swing components.
many tutorials and guides feature the "Java Desktop Application" (like the ones for JXMapKit : http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2007/10/30/building-maps-into-swing-app-with-jxmapviewer.html )
You can find something helpful to create CRUD desktop application in Java.
You can find it here.