How to add a custom property tab to the eclipse Properties view? - eclipse

Basically, I have an eclipse plug-in which, among other things, adds three tabs to the Properties View, by using the extension points provided by eclipse (org.eclipse.ui.views.properties.tabbed.propertyContributor, org.eclipse.ui.views.properties.tabbed.propertyTabs and org.eclipse.ui.views.properties.tabbed.propertySections).
I am creating a plug-in to add a new tab (and some different properties) (see image).
Can you please give me some indications on how to do this, considering that there are no extension points offered by this plug-in for this. Is it possible to create a new tab by using the extension points provided by eclipse (mentioned above) in such a way that my tab appears under the three already added?
(I am pretty new in the plug-in area... all the tutorials I found showed how to create some tabs from scratch, where there is nothing added in the Properties View already).
Many thanks!

Here is the solution I found so far (I still need to explore it a bit more - I might be able to add some more details):
I created a fragment - the trick with the fragment is to either set the "host plugin" the RCP plugin or, if you set the "host plugin" a different plugin than the RCP, but which is in the Dependencies list of the RCP, you have to export the product first; don't forget to include the fragment in the Dependencies list of the product.
I extended the plugin org.eclipse.ui.views.properties.tabbed.propertyTabs and set the same contributorId as in the original plugin (the one with the 3 tabs) and created my new tab ("My Tab" in the image)
I created the sections I needed for this tab, again setting the same contributorId

Related

Extend an existing Context Menu inside Eclipse Outline View for Xtext

We have an eclipse plugin which has been created using Xtext. And now I want to add a context menu to an Element inside the Outline View inside Eclipse. I understand that I need to have a menuContribution which will invoke a Command. But what I dont understand is, do I have to create (define) a command in some way or the other.
My plugin.xml contains an extension point for "org.eclipse.ui.menus".
Menu Contribution is something like this:
I find tutorials that talk about creating menu contributions, but there is nothing which will tie up my menuContribution to a command I want to define.
Typically you will need three extensions:
org.eclipse.ui.command
org.eclipse.ui.handlers
org.eclipse.ui.menu
It requires some fidling to get them right. I suggest you look at some open source code and starts from there.
Introduction article: http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseCommands/article.html
The locationUri of the context menu you like to contribute to should be popup:org.eclipse.xtext.ui.outline.OutlinePageContextMenu. Found here: https://github.com/eclipse/xtext-eclipse/blob/master/org.eclipse.xtext.ui/src/org/eclipse/xtext/ui/editor/outline/impl/OutlinePage.java

Adding Xtext template proposals to the standard Templates View

We use a DSL generated with Xtext. We added template proposals to our editor as described in the documentation , it works great - templates are available on 'Ctrl+space' and on the preferences page. However, they are NOT visible in the templates view - a standard view in Eclipse where the template proposals are usually displayed.
Normally, Eclipse templates are added by use of the org.eclipse.ui.editors.templates extension point, but it is not used in our plugin.xml generated by Xtext.
Is it possible to display Xtext templates in the standard templates view and if yes, how can we do it?
UPD:
As pointed by Zoltán in his comment, even though the templates view is placed inside the "Generic" group, it heavily depends on the JDT. That's a limitation of this view. An alternative approach to display all templates in a view next to the editor is described in another post
If you are talking about the General/*Templates* view from the Show view dialog, as opposed to its category, is JDT-specific - at least according to the Plug-in spy it is contributed by the
org.eclipse.jdt.ui plug-in, and it only displays Java related templates (I have other template-supported languages available in my setup, and none of them are displayed in the view).
In other words, even if it is possible to extend this list by the Xtext templates (but I think, it is not), you are to be very careful about it, as it might introduce potentitally unwanted JDT UI dependencies for your project.

Jface TreeViewer nodes Link with files

I writing an eclipse plugin to analyze files for some defects, I get the list of java files, their classes and methods in a jface tree view, I need to open the file in the editor when I double click on the file node of the tree view.
please help me with this.
thanks,
Shasinda
You should either use a common navigator framework with corresponding filters that already has the link and open function built-in for Eclipse Resources, however, is much trickier to set up - see the blog post series starting with http://cvalcarcel.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/writing-an-eclipse-plug-in-part-1-what-im-going-to-do/
Alternatively, you could add a double click listener that opens an editor (or checks existing editors of the current workbenchpage) by looking the open editors. For the basic idea, see the corresponding Eclipse FAQ entry.
Use IDE.openEditor to open the editor.

Activate the activator class

I am using eclipse 3.6. I created one sample plugin application. It is neither a eclipse rcp nor workbench. Now when I run the eclipse I want that plugin also to be loaded. But I dont want to use IStartUp. Because what I have found out is
IStartup will be called after the workbench is loaded. I want to refresh some menu. So Is there any way to activate my plugin while the eclipse loaded?
I tried to use Bundle Activation policy. But that is also not activating my Activator class. I just put one System.out. println("Inside start()"). So that is not called. Now can I make it activate my activator?
EDIT:
what my exact requirement is, I have created one workbench application.It is not eclipse rcp application. Now I want to remove the following menu and menu items from the eclipse before the eclipe is loaded.
1. File Menu
2.) Search Menu
3.)Run Menu
4.)Help->search,Dynamic Help,Key assist,Tips and trick,Report Bug,Cheat Sheet.
These menus are inbuilt menu of eclipse. So that is the reason I have to do in this way.
So I already implemented by using startup extension point. But the early startup is called after the eclipse is started.So I need to do some refreshment on the workbench.Then only the menu item will get removed.So I thought I need startup extension point will not satisfy my requirement as it doesnot refresh the workbench.I need to activate the my plugin and refresh the workbench before it is loaded.
Thanks
Bhanu
You can set the needed start level for your plugin using touch point instruction.
You are just a plugin that expects to run in the Eclipse IDE?
Then the answer is, you cannot do what you want.
If you start before the workbench has finished initializing, most of the services that could be used won't work: The workbench itself, menu service, command service, etc.
For most plugins in eclipse, the plugin.xml should be used to add menus, views, editors, etc to eclipse. When necessary, the framework will instantiate them.
org.eclipse.ui.IStartup is available and as you mentioned it will be called after the workbench has been initialized, but before any windows have been shown. It's not to be used lightly, and not by plugins contributing to the UI as it allows all extension from that plugin to be loaded.
EDIT:
If you are an RCP app, you control the main menu. As an RCP app, you have access to the ActionBarAdvisor, WorkbenchAdvisor, WorkbenchWindowAdvisor, which all have lifecycle methods.
If you are an an eclipse plugin, you can add to the main menu ... you cannot easily remove from the main menu. This is by design. Start levels and org.eclipse.ui.startup are 2 mechanisms that won't do what you want.
You still need to answer these questions:
There might still be a way. The crux of your problem is: "I want to refresh some menu"
What kind of menu (popup, main menu,
compound list of menu items in a
menu, etc)?
Where is the menu contribution coming from?
Which specific menu item is it?
Please edit your question (do not comment) and include the information from the above 3 questions, please.

Eclipse look & feel customization

I need to customize the look & feel of my RCP application.
I took a look at Eclipse Presentation API and I suppose it allows to customize everything in workbench except controls.
So is there any solution to customize controls?
I made some research work and implemented some ad-hoc SWT cunstomization using control canvas drawning. May be there are better solutions?
In Swing you can use Synth theme. It would be great if some 'skin' framework exists for SWT.
One way of customizing an RCP app is by using a plugin_customization.ini file. Like this:
Create a new file called "plugin_customization.ini" in the root of your project.
If you have not already done so, create a product configuration and define a Product.
In your plugin's manifest editor, on the "Extensions" tab, locate the "org.eclipse.core.runtime.products" extension, expand the node, right click on your product node and select "New > property" from the context menu.
Enter "preferenceCustomization" in the "name" field and "plugin_customization.ini" in the "value" field.
Select "File > Save" from the main menu.
You can then customize a lot of things simply by editing plugin_customization.ini file. For example, adding the following line
org.eclipse.ui/SHOW_TRADITIONAL_STYLE_TABS=false
will give you rounded tabs on your views and editors (similar to those that Eclipse IDE has) instead of the default ones.
You can find other constants that you can use in IWorkbenchPreferenceConstants javadoc.
Also, check out the Eclipse skins project, if you haven't already.
There is also the possibility to use CSS to change the look & feel of your app, but that is still in development and can be buggy
As for customizing the SWT controls themselves, the only way to do that (apart from small customizations such as changing the background colour of a control etc.) is by creating your own custom controls by extending Canvas or Composite, but you already know that. Keep in mind that the point of SWT is to use native controls, so if you desire the ability to completely customize your controls, perhaps using Swing would be a better option. However, if you're going to use Swing, it may be better to use another RCP entirely - namely, NetBeans RCP. I haven't tried it out yet, but I know that whereas Eclipse RCP uses SWT as a widget toolkit, NetBeans RCP relies on Swing, so that may save you from some headaches regarding compatibility problems and so on.
The new Eclipse 4 work contains plugins that allow the L&F to be customized using CSS. These plugins can be run in a 3.7 Eclipse environment. See Kai's blog for a presentation on the subject: http://www.toedter.com/blog/?p=477
The Eclipse 4 Styling Tutorial has a slide (p.66) on where to get an 3.7 based RCP example.