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plugin.xml for eclipse bundle

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Andrey Hihlovskiy edited this page Jul 2, 2014 · 56 revisions

We already learned what default "plugin.xml" is. Now we will program "plugin.xml" for Eclipse bundle.

Create "build.gradle"

Create folder "tutorials/MyEclipseplugin", create file "build.gradle" in it, insert code:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenLocal()
    jcenter()
  }

  dependencies {
    classpath 'org.akhikhl.wuff:wuff-plugin:+'
  }
}

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'org.akhikhl.wuff.eclipse-bundle'

repositories {
  mavenLocal()
  jcenter()
}

Compile and inspect default "plugin.xml"

Invoke on command line: build gradle.

Open file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/build/libs/MyEclipsePlugin-1.0.0.0.jar" - it does not contain "plugin.xml". Explanation: Wuff skips default "plugin.xml" generation, because it does not "know" what to write there. Particularly, our project does not contain views or perspectives to be registered in default "plugin.xml".

Create view

Create folder "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/src/main/java/myeclipseplugin", create file "MyView.java" in it, insert code:

package myeclipseplugin;

import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;

public class MyView extends ViewPart {

  @Override
  public void createPartControl(final Composite parent) {
  }

  @Override
  public void setFocus() {
  }
}

Compile and inspect default view extension-point

Invoke on command line: build gradle.

Open file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/build/libs/MyEclipsePlugin-1.0.0.0.jar" - it contains "plugin.xml" with the following content:

<plugin>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
    <view id="MyEclipsePlugin.MyView" name="MyEclipsePlugin MyView" class="myeclipseplugin.MyView"/>
  </extension>
</plugin>

We see that Wuff recognized our file as a view and that it automatically inserted extension-point for it. In general, Wuff recognizes any files matching to patterns '**/*View.groovy', '**/*View.java', '**/View*.groovy', '**/View*.java' as view files and inserts extension-point "org.eclipse.ui.views" for each of them.

Explanation of attributes:

  • id="MyEclipsePlugin.MyView": can be any string, was assigned to concatenation of project name and view class name.
  • name="MyEclipsePlugin MyView": can be any string, was assigned to concatenation of project name and view class name.
  • class="myeclipseplugin.MyView": must be a QCN of the view class.

Customize view extension-point

What should we do to change the view name or view id? Very simple: give our own view definition. Create folder "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/src/main/resources", create file "plugin.xml" in it, insert content:

<plugin>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
    <view id="myviewid" name="Very nice view" class="myeclipseplugin.MyView"/>
  </extension>
</plugin>

Compile and inspect custom view extension-point

Invoke on command line: build gradle.

Open file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/build/libs/MyEclipsePlugin-1.0.0.0.jar" - it contains "plugin.xml" with our view extension-point, not the default one.

Create perspective

Create file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/src/main/java/myeclipseplugin/MyPerspective.java", insert code:

package myeclipseplugin;

import org.eclipse.ui.IPageLayout;
import org.eclipse.ui.IPerspectiveFactory;

public class MyPerspective implements IPerspectiveFactory {

  public void createInitialLayout(IPageLayout layout) {
  }
}

Compile and inspect default perspective extension-point

Invoke on command line: build gradle.

Open file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/build/libs/MyEclipsePlugin-1.0.0.0.jar" - it contains "plugin.xml" with the following content:

<plugin>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
    <view id="myviewid" name="Very nice view" class="myeclipseplugin.MyView"/>
  </extension>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectives">
    <perspective id="MyEclipsePlugin.MyPerspective" name="MyEclipsePlugin MyPerspective" class="myeclipseplugin.MyPerspective"/>
  </extension>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions">
    <perspectiveExtension targetID="MyEclipsePlugin.MyPerspective">
      <view id="myviewid" standalone="true" minimized="false" relative="org.eclipse.ui.editorss" relationship="left"/>
    </perspectiveExtension>
  </extension>
</plugin>

We see that Wuff recognized "MyPerspective.java" file as a perspective and that it automatically inserted extension-points for it. In general, Wuff recognizes any files matching to patterns '**/*Perspective.groovy', '**/*Perspective.java', '**/Perspective*.groovy', '**/Perspective*.java' as perspective files and inserts extension point "org.eclipse.ui.perspectives" for each of them.

Explanation of attributes in "org.eclipse.ui.perspectives":

  • id="MyEclipsePlugin.MyPerspective": can be any string, was assigned to concatenation of project name and perspective class name.
  • name="MyEclipsePlugin MyPerspective": can be any string, was assigned to concatenation of project name and perspective class name.
  • class="myeclipseplugin.MyPerspective": must be a QCN of the perspective class.

As we see, extension-point "org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions" links perspective and view. This is special case: our plugin contains exactly one perspective and one view, so Wuff decides that they must be linked to each other.

Customize perspective extension-point

Let's customize our perspective as well. Edit the file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/src/main/resources/plugin.xml", insert content:

<plugin>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
    <view id="myviewid" name="Very nice view" class="myeclipseplugin.MyView"/>
  </extension>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectives">
    <perspective id="myperspectiveid" name="Very nice perspective" class="myeclipseplugin.MyPerspective"/>
  </extension>
</plugin>

Compile and inspect custom perspective extension-point

Invoke on command line: build gradle.

Open file "tutorials/MyEclipsePlugin/build/libs/MyEclipsePlugin-1.0.0.0.jar" - it contains "plugin.xml" with the following content:

<plugin>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
    <view id="myviewid" name="Very nice view" class="myeclipseplugin.MyView"/>
  </extension>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectives">
    <perspective id="myperspectiveid" name="Very nice perspective" class="myeclipseplugin.MyPerspective"/>
  </extension>
  <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions">
    <perspectiveExtension targetID="myperspectiveid">
      <view id="myviewid" standalone="true" minimized="false" relative="org.eclipse.ui.editorss" relationship="left"/>
    </perspectiveExtension>
  </extension>
</plugin>

As we see, now Wuff recognizes that "plugin.xml" already contains extension-point for perspective and does not generate the default one. We also see that Wuff still links perspective and view, because it is a special case: one perspective and one view.

The example code for this page: examples/PluginXml-1 and examples/PluginXml-2.

Next page: "plugin.xml" for Equinox app.

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