Skip to main content

Notice: this Wiki will be going read only early in 2024 and edits will no longer be possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.

Jump to: navigation, search

Difference between revisions of "The Official Eclipse FAQs"

Line 144: Line 144:
  
 
=== All about Plug-ins ===
 
=== All about Plug-ins ===
 +
 +
Part I discussed the Eclipse ecosystem: how to run it, how to use it, and how to extend it. In this chapter, we revisit the topic of plug-ins and lay the groundwork for all plug-in development topics to be discussed in later chapters. This chapter answers questions about the core concepts of the Eclipse kernel, including plug-ins, extension points, fragments, and more. All APIs mentioned in this chapter are found in the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in.
  
 
:*[[FAQ What is a plug-in?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What is a plug-in?]]
Line 173: Line 175:
  
 
=== Runtime Facilities ===
 
=== Runtime Facilities ===
 +
 +
Above, we already discussed most of the basic functionality of the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in. This chapter covers the remaining facilities of Eclipse Platform runtime: APIs for logging, tracing, storing preferences, and other such core functionality. These various services, although not strictly needed by all plug-ins, are common enough that they merit being located directly alongside the Eclipse kernel. In Eclipse 3.0, this plug-in was expanded to add infrastructure for running and managing background operations. This chapter answers some of the questions that may arise when you start to use this new concurrency infrastructure.
  
 
:*[[FAQ How do I use progress monitors?]]
 
:*[[FAQ How do I use progress monitors?]]
Line 191: Line 195:
  
 
=== Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) ===
 
=== Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) ===
 +
 +
One of the great success stories of the Eclipse Platform has been the overwhelming groundswell of support for its windowing toolkit, SWT. This toolkit offers a fast, thin, mostly native alternative to the most common Java UI toolkits, Swing and Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). Religious debates abound over the relative merits of Swing versus SWT, and we take great pains to avoid these debates here. Suffice it to say that SWT generates massive interest and manages to garner as much, if not more, interest as the Eclipse Platform built on top of it.
 +
 +
The popularity of SWT has forced us to take a slightly different approach with this chapter. The SWT newsgroup was created in July 2003 and since then has generated an average of 136 messages every day. In this book, we could not even scratch the surface of the information available there. Although we could present the illusion of completeness by answering a couple dozen popular technical questions, we would not be doing the topic justice. Instead, we focus on answering a few of the higher-level questions and providing as many forward pointers as we can to further information on SWT available elsewhere. A benefit of SWT’s popularity is the wealth of Web sites, discussion forums, books, and other forms of documentation out there. Thus, although we won’t be able to answer all SWT questions, we hope at least to steer you to the resources that can. However, a handful of questions are asked so often that we can’t resist answering them here.
  
 
:*[[FAQ What is SWT?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What is SWT?]]
Line 206: Line 214:
  
 
=== JFace ===
 
=== JFace ===
 +
 +
JFace is a Java application framework based on SWT. The goal of JFace is to provide a set of reusable components that make it easier to write a Java-based GUI application. Among the components JFace provides are such familiar GUI concepts as wizards, preference pages, actions, and dialogs. These components tend to be the bits and pieces that are integral to the basic widget set but are common enough that there is significant benefit to drawing them together into a reusable framework. Although its heritage is based on a long line of frameworks for writing IDEs, most of JFace is generally useful in a broad range of graphical desktop applications. JFace has a few connections to classes in the Eclipse runtime kernel, but it is fairly straightforward to extract JFace and SWT for use in stand-alone Java applications that are not based on the Eclipse runtime. JFace does not make use of such Eclipse-specific concepts as extensions and extension points.
  
 
:*[[FAQ What is a viewer?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What is a viewer?]]
Line 228: Line 238:
 
:*[[FAQ How do I set the title of a custom dialog?]]
 
:*[[FAQ How do I set the title of a custom dialog?]]
 
:*[[FAQ How do I save settings for a dialog or wizard?]]
 
:*[[FAQ How do I save settings for a dialog or wizard?]]
−
 
  
 
=== Generic Workbench ===
 
=== Generic Workbench ===
 +
 +
This chapter covers FAQs relating to the generic workbench and its APIs. Workbench is the term used for the generic Eclipse UI. Originally the UI was called the desktop, but because Eclipse was a platform primarily for tools rather than for stationery, workbench was deemed more suitable. In Eclipse 3.0, tools are no longer the sole focus, so the term Rich Client Platform, is starting to creep in as the term for the generic, non-tool-specific UI. After all, people don’t want to play mine sweeper or send e-mails to Mom from such a prosaically named application as a workbench. A rich client, on the other hand, is always welcome at the dinner table.
 +
 +
Many of the important workbench concepts, such as editors, views, and actions, generate enough questions that they deserve their own chapters. This chapter focuses on general questions about integrating your plug-in with the various extension hooks the workbench provides.
  
 
:*[[FAQ Pages, parts, sites, windows: What is all this stuff?]]
 
:*[[FAQ Pages, parts, sites, windows: What is all this stuff?]]
Line 258: Line 271:
  
 
=== Perspectives and Views ===
 
=== Perspectives and Views ===
 +
 +
This chapter answers questions about two central concepts in the Eclipse Platform UI. Perspectives define the set of actions and parts that appear in a workbench window and specify the initial size and position of views within that window. Views are the draggable parts that make up the bulk of a workbench window’s contents. This chapter does not deal with any specific perspectives or views, but with questions that arise when you implement your own perspectives and views.
  
 
:*[[FAQ How do I create a new perspective?]]
 
:*[[FAQ How do I create a new perspective?]]
Line 278: Line 293:
  
 
=== Generic Editors ===
 
=== Generic Editors ===
 +
 +
In Eclipse, editors are parts that have an associated input inside a workbench window and additional lifecycle methods, such as save and revert. This chapter answers questions about interacting with editors and about writing your own editors, whether they are text based or graphical. See Chapter 15 for a complete treatment of questions about writing your own text-based editors.
  
 
:*[[FAQ What is the difference between a view and an editor?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What is the difference between a view and an editor?]]
Line 294: Line 311:
  
 
=== Actions, Commands, and Activities ===
 
=== Actions, Commands, and Activities ===
 +
 +
This chapter answers questions about creating menu bars, context menus, and tool bars and the actions that fill them. A variety of both declarative and programmatic methods are available for contributing actions to the Eclipse UI and for managing and filtering those actions once they have been defined. This chapter also discusses the various ways to execute the long-running tasks that can be triggered by menu and toolbar actions.
  
 
:*[[FAQ Actions, commands, operations, jobs: What does it all mean?]]
 
:*[[FAQ Actions, commands, operations, jobs: What does it all mean?]]
Line 321: Line 340:
  
 
=== Building Your Own Application ===
 
=== Building Your Own Application ===
 +
 +
Prior to the introduction of RCP, most of the Eclipse community was focused on developing plug-ins for a particular Eclipse application called the workbench. Eclipse, however, has always supported the ability to create your own stand alone applications based on the Eclipse plug-in architecture. Eclipse applications can range from simple headless programs with no user interface to full-blown IDEs. In Eclipse 3.0, the platform began a shift toward giving greater power and flexibility to applications built on the Eclipse infrastructure. This chapter guides you through the process of building your own Eclipse application and explores some of the new Eclipse 3.0 APIs available only to applications.
  
 
:*[[FAQ What is an Eclipse application?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What is an Eclipse application?]]
Line 339: Line 360:
  
 
=== Productizing an Eclipse Offering ===
 
=== Productizing an Eclipse Offering ===
 +
 +
In this chapter, we look at turning an Eclipse configuration into a product. When an Eclipse product is created, the anonymous collection of plug-ins takes on application-specific branding, complete with custom images, splash screen, and launcher. In creating your own product, you typically also need to write an installer and uninstaller and consider how your users will obtain and upgrade your product.
  
 
:*[[FAQ Where do I find suitable Eclipse logos and wordmarks?]]
 
:*[[FAQ Where do I find suitable Eclipse logos and wordmarks?]]
Line 356: Line 379:
  
 
=== Text Editors ===
 
=== Text Editors ===
 +
 +
  
 
:*[[FAQ What support is there for creating custom text editors?]]
 
:*[[FAQ What support is there for creating custom text editors?]]

Revision as of 21:36, 16 March 2006

The initial contents for these FAQ pages has come from The Offical Eclipse 3.0 FAQs written by John Arthorne and Chris Laffra.

Permission to publish the FAQ book contents here has been graciously offered by Addison-Wesley, publishers of the official Eclipse Series which wouldn't be possible without the great help from Greg Doench.

Part I -- The Eclipse Ecosystem

FAQ PartI.jpg

The Eclipse Community

Eclipse has taken the computing industry by storm. The download data for the Eclipse Software Development Kit (SDK) is astounding and a true ecosystem is forming around this new phenomenon. In this chapter we discuss what Eclipse is and who is involved in it and give you a glimpse of how large a community has put its weight behind this innovative technology.

An open source project would be nothing without a supporting community. The Eclipse ecosystem is a thriving one, with many research projects based on Eclipse, commercial products that ship on top of Eclipse, lively discussions in newsgroups and mailing lists, and a long list of articles and books that address the platform. The following pages will give you a roadmap of the community, so that you will feel more at home as you come to wander its winding streets.


Getting Started

Eclipse can be seen as a very advanced Java program. Running Eclipse may sound simple—simply run the included eclipse.exe or eclipse executable—yet in practice, you may want to tweak the inner workings of the platform. First, Eclipse does not come with a Java virtual machine (JVM), so you have to get one yourself. Note that Eclipse 3.0 needs a 1.4-compatible Java runtime environment (JRE).

To use Eclipse effectively, you will need to learn how to make Eclipse use a specific JRE. In addition, you may want to influence how much heap Eclipse may allocate, where it loads and saves its workspace from, and how you can add more plug-ins to your Eclipse installation.

This chapter should get you going. We also included some FAQs for plug-in developers who have already written plug-ins and want to get started with plug-in development for Eclipse 3.0.


Java Development in Eclipse

The topic of how to use Eclipse for typical Java development is beyond the scope of this FAQ list. We focus more on the issues Eclipse users may run into when developing new plug-ins for the platform. Also, as a plug-in developer, you need to be familiar with the ways in which Eclipse is used. To achieve seamless integration with the platform, your plug-in must respect common usage patterns and offer the same level of functionality that users of your plug-in have come to expect from the platform. This chapter focuses on user-level issues of interest to plug-in developers as users or as enablers for other users of the platform.

For a comprehensive guide to using Eclipse, refer to other books such as The Java Developer’s Guide to Eclipse (Addison-Wesley, 2003).


Plug-In Development Environment

This book is all about extending the Eclipse Platform. The main instrument for extending the platform is a plug-in. Plug-ins solidify certain crucial design criteria underlying Eclipse. Special tooling has been developed as part of Eclipse to support the development of plug-ins. This set of plug-ins is called the Plug-in Development Environment; or PDE. The PDE tools cover the entire lifecycle of plug-in development, from creating them using special wizards to editing them to building them to launching them to exporting and sharing them.

This chapter describes the mechanics of plug-in development, such as creating plug-ins, features, and update sites, and introduces the PDE tooling. We go into much more depth about what plug-ins are in later FAQs. If you want to jump ahead, we suggest that you first visit FAQ What is a plug-in?.


Part II -- The Rich Client Platform

FAQ PartII.jpg

All about Plug-ins

Part I discussed the Eclipse ecosystem: how to run it, how to use it, and how to extend it. In this chapter, we revisit the topic of plug-ins and lay the groundwork for all plug-in development topics to be discussed in later chapters. This chapter answers questions about the core concepts of the Eclipse kernel, including plug-ins, extension points, fragments, and more. All APIs mentioned in this chapter are found in the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in.


Runtime Facilities

Above, we already discussed most of the basic functionality of the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in. This chapter covers the remaining facilities of Eclipse Platform runtime: APIs for logging, tracing, storing preferences, and other such core functionality. These various services, although not strictly needed by all plug-ins, are common enough that they merit being located directly alongside the Eclipse kernel. In Eclipse 3.0, this plug-in was expanded to add infrastructure for running and managing background operations. This chapter answers some of the questions that may arise when you start to use this new concurrency infrastructure.


Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)

One of the great success stories of the Eclipse Platform has been the overwhelming groundswell of support for its windowing toolkit, SWT. This toolkit offers a fast, thin, mostly native alternative to the most common Java UI toolkits, Swing and Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). Religious debates abound over the relative merits of Swing versus SWT, and we take great pains to avoid these debates here. Suffice it to say that SWT generates massive interest and manages to garner as much, if not more, interest as the Eclipse Platform built on top of it.

The popularity of SWT has forced us to take a slightly different approach with this chapter. The SWT newsgroup was created in July 2003 and since then has generated an average of 136 messages every day. In this book, we could not even scratch the surface of the information available there. Although we could present the illusion of completeness by answering a couple dozen popular technical questions, we would not be doing the topic justice. Instead, we focus on answering a few of the higher-level questions and providing as many forward pointers as we can to further information on SWT available elsewhere. A benefit of SWT’s popularity is the wealth of Web sites, discussion forums, books, and other forms of documentation out there. Thus, although we won’t be able to answer all SWT questions, we hope at least to steer you to the resources that can. However, a handful of questions are asked so often that we can’t resist answering them here.


JFace

JFace is a Java application framework based on SWT. The goal of JFace is to provide a set of reusable components that make it easier to write a Java-based GUI application. Among the components JFace provides are such familiar GUI concepts as wizards, preference pages, actions, and dialogs. These components tend to be the bits and pieces that are integral to the basic widget set but are common enough that there is significant benefit to drawing them together into a reusable framework. Although its heritage is based on a long line of frameworks for writing IDEs, most of JFace is generally useful in a broad range of graphical desktop applications. JFace has a few connections to classes in the Eclipse runtime kernel, but it is fairly straightforward to extract JFace and SWT for use in stand-alone Java applications that are not based on the Eclipse runtime. JFace does not make use of such Eclipse-specific concepts as extensions and extension points.

Generic Workbench

This chapter covers FAQs relating to the generic workbench and its APIs. Workbench is the term used for the generic Eclipse UI. Originally the UI was called the desktop, but because Eclipse was a platform primarily for tools rather than for stationery, workbench was deemed more suitable. In Eclipse 3.0, tools are no longer the sole focus, so the term Rich Client Platform, is starting to creep in as the term for the generic, non-tool-specific UI. After all, people don’t want to play mine sweeper or send e-mails to Mom from such a prosaically named application as a workbench. A rich client, on the other hand, is always welcome at the dinner table.

Many of the important workbench concepts, such as editors, views, and actions, generate enough questions that they deserve their own chapters. This chapter focuses on general questions about integrating your plug-in with the various extension hooks the workbench provides.


Perspectives and Views

This chapter answers questions about two central concepts in the Eclipse Platform UI. Perspectives define the set of actions and parts that appear in a workbench window and specify the initial size and position of views within that window. Views are the draggable parts that make up the bulk of a workbench window’s contents. This chapter does not deal with any specific perspectives or views, but with questions that arise when you implement your own perspectives and views.


Generic Editors

In Eclipse, editors are parts that have an associated input inside a workbench window and additional lifecycle methods, such as save and revert. This chapter answers questions about interacting with editors and about writing your own editors, whether they are text based or graphical. See Chapter 15 for a complete treatment of questions about writing your own text-based editors.


Actions, Commands, and Activities

This chapter answers questions about creating menu bars, context menus, and tool bars and the actions that fill them. A variety of both declarative and programmatic methods are available for contributing actions to the Eclipse UI and for managing and filtering those actions once they have been defined. This chapter also discusses the various ways to execute the long-running tasks that can be triggered by menu and toolbar actions.


Building Your Own Application

Prior to the introduction of RCP, most of the Eclipse community was focused on developing plug-ins for a particular Eclipse application called the workbench. Eclipse, however, has always supported the ability to create your own stand alone applications based on the Eclipse plug-in architecture. Eclipse applications can range from simple headless programs with no user interface to full-blown IDEs. In Eclipse 3.0, the platform began a shift toward giving greater power and flexibility to applications built on the Eclipse infrastructure. This chapter guides you through the process of building your own Eclipse application and explores some of the new Eclipse 3.0 APIs available only to applications.


Productizing an Eclipse Offering

In this chapter, we look at turning an Eclipse configuration into a product. When an Eclipse product is created, the anonymous collection of plug-ins takes on application-specific branding, complete with custom images, splash screen, and launcher. In creating your own product, you typically also need to write an installer and uninstaller and consider how your users will obtain and upgrade your product.


Part III -- The Eclipse IDE Platform

FAQ PartIII.jpg


Text Editors


Help, Search, and Compare


Workspace and Resources API


Workbench IDE


Implementing Support for Your Own Language


Java Development Tool API


Where to buy the book

Amazon.com

Retrieved from "https://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=The_Official_Eclipse_FAQs&oldid=3404"

Back to the top