View source for FAQ How do I hook into global actions, such as Copy and Delete?

Certain standard toolbar and menu entries can be shared among several 
views and editors.  
These actions are called either <i>global</i> or <i>retargetable</i> actions
and include such common tools as undo/redo, cut/copy/paste, print, find, 
delete, and more. Each view or editor is allowed to contribute a handler for 
these actions; when a new part becomes active, its handler takes control 
of that action.  

A view typically registers its global action
handlers in the <tt>createPartControl</tt> method:
<pre>
   IActionBars actionBars= getViewSite().getActionBars();
   actionBars.setGlobalActionHandler(
      ActionFactory.COPY.getId(),
      copyAction);	
</pre>
You have to do this only once for each view that is created.  The platform
remembers your action handler and retargets the action each time the view
becomes active.  To unregister from a global action, simply invoke
<tt>setGlobalActionHandler</tt> again and pass in a <tt>null</tt> value
for the handler.


The <tt>IWorkbenchActionConstants</tt> interface in the 
<tt>org.eclipse.ui</tt> package contains a complete list of global actions.
Look for constants in this interface with a comment saying &#147;Global action.&#148; 
In Eclipse 3.0, you can also look at the <tt>ActionFactory</tt> 
and <tt>IDEActionFactory</tt> classes, which define factory objects 
for creating a variety of common actions.


== See Also ==
[[FAQ How do I enable global actions such as Cut, Paste, and Print in my editor?]]

[[FAQ How do I add actions to the global toolbar?]]

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