View source for FAQ How do I open an editor on something that is not a file?

Since 3.3 you can use the new EFS support to open an text editor on a file store that's backed by any kind of EFS using <code>[http://help.eclipse.org/stable/nftopic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/api/org/eclipse/ui/ide/IDE.html#openEditorOnFileStore(org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPage,%20org.eclipse.core.filesystem.IFileStore) IDE.openEditorOnFileStore(IWorkbenchPage, IFileStore)]</code>.

Most editors will accept as input either an <tt>IFileEditorInput</tt> or an <tt>IStorageEditorInput</tt>.  The former can be used only for opening files in the workspace, but the latter can be used to open a stream of bytes from anywhere. If you want to open a file on a database object, remote file, or  other data source, <tt>IStorage</tt> is the way to go.  The only downside is that this is a read-only input type, so you can use it only for viewing a file, not editing it. To use this approach, implement <tt>IStorage</tt> so that it returns the bytes for the file you want to display.  Here is an <tt>IStorage</tt> that returns the contents of a string:

<source lang="java">
class StringStorage implements IStorage {
  private String string;
  
  StringStorage(String input) {
    this.string = input;
  }
  
  public InputStream getContents() throws CoreException {
    return new ByteArrayInputStream(string.getBytes());
  }
  
  public IPath getFullPath() {
    return null;
  }
  
  public Object getAdapter(Class adapter) {
    return null;
  }
  
  public String getName() {
    int len = Math.min(5, string.length());
    return string.substring(0, len).concat("..."); //$NON-NLS-1$
  }
  
  public boolean isReadOnly() {
    return true;
  }
}
</source>

The class extends <tt>PlatformObject</tt> to inherit the standard implementation of <tt>IAdaptable</tt>, which <tt>IStorage</tt> extends.  The <tt>getName</tt> and <tt>getFullPath</tt> methods can  return <tt>null</tt> if they are not needed.  In this case, we've implemented <tt>getName</tt> to return the first five characters of the string.

The next step is to create an <tt>IStorageEditorInput</tt> implementation that returns your <tt>IStorage</tt> object:

<source lang="java">
   class StringInput implements IStorageEditorInput {
      private IStorage storage;
      StringInput(IStorage storage) {this.storage = storage;}
      public boolean exists() {return true;}
      public ImageDescriptor getImageDescriptor() {return null;}
      public String getName() {
         return storage.getName();
      }
      public IPersistableElement getPersistable() {return null;}
      public IStorage getStorage() {
         return storage;
      }
      public String getToolTipText() {
         return "String-based file: " + storage.getName();
      }
      public Object getAdapter(Class adapter) {
        return null;
      }
   }
</source>

Again, many of the methods here are optional.  The <tt>getPersistable</tt> method is used for implementing persistence of your editor input, so the platform can automatically restore your editor on start-up.  Here, we've implemented the bare essentials: the editor name, and a tool tip.

The final step is to open an editor with this input.  This snippet opens the platform's default text editor on a given string:

<source lang="java">
   IWorkbenchWindow window = ...;
   String string = "This is the text file contents";
   IStorage storage = new StringStorage(string);
   IStorageEditorInput input = new StringInput(storage);
   IWorkbenchPage page = window.getActivePage();
   if (page != null)
      page.openEditor(input, "org.eclipse.ui.DefaultTextEditor");
</source>

== See Also: ==
*[[FAQ How do I open an editor programmatically?]]
*[[FAQ How do I open an editor on a file outside the workspace?]]

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