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Difference between revisions of "Eclipse IDE for Education/New Developers"
(First pass at the new developers help page. More to come.) |
(Adding some more potentially useful information.) |
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So you'd like to start developing for Eclipse and Eclipse IDE 4 Education? | So you'd like to start developing for Eclipse and Eclipse IDE 4 Education? | ||
| − | The following is a collection of useful links, knowledge, and help for bringing new developers up to speed with the Eclipse framework and the IDE 4 Education code base. | + | The following is a collection of useful links, knowledge, and help for bringing new developers up to speed with the Eclipse framework and the Eclipse IDE 4 Education code base. |
== Eclipse Framework == | == Eclipse Framework == | ||
| − | - | + | === Setup === |
| + | * Please refer to the previous page for [http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_IDE_for_Education#Development_Environment Setting up the development environment]. | ||
| + | * The team project set can be used to download the source code. | ||
| + | * Eclipse uses BugZilla to track bugs; Please refer to [http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_IDE_for_Education#Development BugZilla information] for more details. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | === Framework Organization === | ||
| + | Developing with the Eclipse framework will take some time to learn, but it can be very rewarding! | ||
| + | |||
| + | An RCP application is built with a set of plugins, and couple of them will be ours (org.eclipse.ide4edu.*). Each plugin has a plugin.xml and this is the critical file that brings RCP applications together. Forget everything you know about creating stand-alone applications in Java... Majority of the Eclipse RCP development will require defining and customizing plugin "extensions" with the help of the plugin.xml file. You can do this by modifying the XML directly or use Eclipse's built-in GUI by simply opening the plugin.xml file you want to modify. You will notice a bunch of tabs at the bottom of the editor - pay the most attention to the "Extensions" tab, as that is where the RCP magic occurs. If you're planning on adding or customizing something within the RCP UI, be it a new menu item, a wizard, a completely new perspective, tutorials, etc, its all done by defining and customizing the appropriate extension. The plugin org.eclipse.ide4edu.javalite.ui is a good starting point as we have defined and implemented many of these already. | ||
== Useful Tidbits == | == Useful Tidbits == | ||
| − | - | + | Looking for a quick overview / How-To for various tasks related to Eclipse RCP development? This link [http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_RCP_How-to Eclipse RCP How-To] gives a short and sweet version of how to do a large variety of tasks within the Eclipse framework. |
| + | |||
| + | There is a large database of various Eclipse tutorials found here: [http://www.eclipse.org/articles/ Eclipse Tutorials] | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here is a page on general Eclipse UI guidelines: [http://wiki.eclipse.org/User_Interface_Guidelines UI Guidelines] | ||
| + | |||
| + | If your going to be making or working with Commands, Command handlers, Actions, (aka anything within the Command framework), here is a list of [http://wiki.eclipse.org/Command_Core_Expressions available command expressions] that can be used within the plugin.xml for adding logic to handle various situations. | ||
== Useful Eclipse Shortcuts == | == Useful Eclipse Shortcuts == | ||
| − | * Plugin Spy – alt + shift + F2 ( | + | * Plugin Spy – alt + shift + F2 (Use to lookup an element's plugin details -> Click on a menu item / anything to bring ID it) |
| + | * Find Source - F3 (Highlight the element you want to look up first) | ||
| + | * Find References - ctrl + shift + G (Highlight the element you want to look up first) | ||
* Open file by name – ctrl + shift + T | * Open file by name – ctrl + shift + T | ||
* Delete whole line(s) without selecting all text – ctrl + d | * Delete whole line(s) without selecting all text – ctrl + d | ||
Revision as of 16:00, 2 April 2010
Contents
Introduction
So you'd like to start developing for Eclipse and Eclipse IDE 4 Education?
The following is a collection of useful links, knowledge, and help for bringing new developers up to speed with the Eclipse framework and the Eclipse IDE 4 Education code base.
Eclipse Framework
Setup
- Please refer to the previous page for Setting up the development environment.
- The team project set can be used to download the source code.
- Eclipse uses BugZilla to track bugs; Please refer to BugZilla information for more details.
Framework Organization
Developing with the Eclipse framework will take some time to learn, but it can be very rewarding!
An RCP application is built with a set of plugins, and couple of them will be ours (org.eclipse.ide4edu.*). Each plugin has a plugin.xml and this is the critical file that brings RCP applications together. Forget everything you know about creating stand-alone applications in Java... Majority of the Eclipse RCP development will require defining and customizing plugin "extensions" with the help of the plugin.xml file. You can do this by modifying the XML directly or use Eclipse's built-in GUI by simply opening the plugin.xml file you want to modify. You will notice a bunch of tabs at the bottom of the editor - pay the most attention to the "Extensions" tab, as that is where the RCP magic occurs. If you're planning on adding or customizing something within the RCP UI, be it a new menu item, a wizard, a completely new perspective, tutorials, etc, its all done by defining and customizing the appropriate extension. The plugin org.eclipse.ide4edu.javalite.ui is a good starting point as we have defined and implemented many of these already.
Useful Tidbits
Looking for a quick overview / How-To for various tasks related to Eclipse RCP development? This link Eclipse RCP How-To gives a short and sweet version of how to do a large variety of tasks within the Eclipse framework.
There is a large database of various Eclipse tutorials found here: Eclipse Tutorials
Here is a page on general Eclipse UI guidelines: UI Guidelines
If your going to be making or working with Commands, Command handlers, Actions, (aka anything within the Command framework), here is a list of available command expressions that can be used within the plugin.xml for adding logic to handle various situations.
Useful Eclipse Shortcuts
- Plugin Spy – alt + shift + F2 (Use to lookup an element's plugin details -> Click on a menu item / anything to bring ID it)
- Find Source - F3 (Highlight the element you want to look up first)
- Find References - ctrl + shift + G (Highlight the element you want to look up first)
- Open file by name – ctrl + shift + T
- Delete whole line(s) without selecting all text – ctrl + d
- Comment out whole line(s) – ctrl + / (Note: can be used to undo commented line too)
- Organize imports – ctrl + shift + O
- Format source code – ctrl + shift + F