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Home > Programming > Application Development > Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide
Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide
Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide

Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide: Extend and customize Eclipse , Second Edition

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Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide

Chapter 2. Creating Views with SWT

SWT – the Standard Widget Toolkit

SWT is the widget toolkit used by Eclipse that gives performant access to the platform's native tools in a portable manner. Unlike Swing, which is rendered with Java native drawing operations, SWT delegates the drawing to the underlying operating system.

In this chapter we will:

  • Create an Eclipse view with SWT widgets
  • Create a custom SWT widget
  • Work with SWT resources and learn how to detect and fix resource leaks
  • Handle focus operations
  • Group components and resize them automatically
  • Create system tray items
  • Display nonrectangular windows
  • Provide scrolling and tabbed navigation

Creating views and widgets

This section introduces views and widgets by creating clocks that can be used to display time zones in Eclipse.

Time for action – creating a view

The Eclipse UI consists of multiple views, which are the rectangular areas that display content, such as the Outline, Console, or Package Explorer. In Eclipse 3.x, views are created by adding an extension point to an existing plug-in, or using a template. A clock.ui plug-in will be created to host the clock widgets and views.

  1. Open the plug-in wizard by navigating to File | New | Other | Plug-in Project. Enter the details as follows:
    1. Set Project name to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.
    2. Ensure that Use default location is selected.
    3. Ensure that Create a Java project is selected.
    4. The Eclipse Version should be targeted to 3.5 or greater.
  2. Click on Next again, and fill in the plug-in properties:
    1. Set ID to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.
    2. Set Version to 1.0.0.qualifier.
    3. Set Name to Clock.
    4. Set Vendor to PacktPub.
    5. Ensure that Generate an Activator is selected.
    6. Set the Activator to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.Activator.
    7. Ensure that This plug-in will make contributions to the UI is selected...

Time for action – drawing a custom view

An SWT Canvas can be used to provide custom rendering for a view. As a starting point for drawing a clock, the Canvas will use drawArc to create a circle.

  1. Remove the content of the ClockView, leaving behind an empty implementation of the setFocus and createPartControl methods.
  2. Run the target Eclipse instance and you will see that the ClockView is now empty.
  3. Create a new method called drawClock that takes a PaintEvent, and use the graphics context gc from the event to draw the circle.
  4. In the createPartControl method, do the following:
    1. Create a new Canvas, which is a drawable widget.
    2. Add a PaintListener to the Canvas that uses a method reference to the drawClock method.
  5. The code will look like this:
    package com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.views;
import org.eclipse.swt.*;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.*;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.*;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;
public class ClockView extends ViewPart {
  public void createPartControl(Composite parent...

Time for action – drawing a seconds hand

A clock with no hands and no numbers is just a circle. To change this, a second hand will be drawn using a filled arc.

Since arcs are drawn anticlockwise from 0 (on the right, or 3 o'clock) through 90 degrees (12 o'clock), then 180 degrees (9 o'clock), then 270 degrees (6 o'clock), and finally back to 360 degrees (3 o'clock), it is possible to calculate the arc's position for the second hand using the expression (15 – seconds) * 6 % 360.

  1. Go to the drawClock method of the ClockView class.
  2. Add a variable called seconds that is initialized to LocalTime.now().getSecond().
  3. Get the SWT.COLOR_BLUE via the display, and store it in a local variable, blue.
  4. Set the background color of the graphics context to blue.
  5. Draw an arc using the formula mentioned earlier to draw the second hand.
  6. The code should look like this:
    public void paintControl(PaintEvent e) {
  e.gc.drawArc(e.x, e.y, e.width-1, e.height-1, 0, 360);
  int seconds...

Time for action – animating the second hand

The second hand is drawn with a redraw on the Canvas, but this will need to be run periodically. If it is redrawn once per second, it can emulate a clock ticking.

Eclipse has a jobs plug-in, which would be just right for this task, but this will be covered in Chapter 4, Interacting with the User. So to begin with, a simple Thread will be used to issue the redraw.

  1. Open the ClockView class.
  2. Add the following at the bottom of the createPartControl method:
    Runnable redraw = () -> {
  while (!clock.isDisposed()) {
    clock.redraw();
    try {
      Thread.sleep(1000);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      return;
    }
  }
};
new Thread(redraw, "TickTock").start();
  3. Relaunch the test Eclipse instance, and open the Clock View.
  4. Open the host Eclipse instance and look in the Console View for the errors.

What just happened?

When the ClockView is shown, a Thread is created and started, which redraws the clock once per second. When it...

Time for action – running on the UI thread

To execute code on the UI thread, Runnable instances must be posted to the Display via one of two methods, syncExec or asyncExec. The syncExec method runs the code synchronously (the caller blocks until the code has been run) while the asyncExec method runs the code asynchronously (the caller continues while the code is run in the background).

The Display class is SWT's handle to a monitor (so a runtime may have more than one Display object, and each may have its own resolution). To get hold of an instance, call either Display.getCurrent() or Display.getDefault(). However, it's much better to get a Display from an associated view or widget. In this case, the Canvas has an associated Display.

  1. Go to the TickTock thread inside the createPartControl method of the ClockView class.
  2. Inside the redraw lambda, replace the call to clock.redraw() with this:
    // clock.redraw();
clock.getDisplay().asyncExec(() -> clock.redraw());
  3. Run the target...

Time for action – creating a reusable widget

Although the ClockView shows a single animated clock, creating an independent widget will allow the clock to be reused in other places.

  1. Create a new class in the com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui package, called ClockWidget, that extends Canvas.
  2. Create a constructor that takes a Composite parent and an int style bits parameter, and pass them to the superclass:
    public ClockWidget(Composite parent, int style) {
  super(parent, style);
}
  3. Move the implementation of the drawClock method from the ClockView to the ClockWidget. Remove the PaintListener references from the ClockView class.
  4. In the ClockWidget constructor, register a PaintListener that delegates the call to the drawClock method:
    addPaintListener(this::drawClock);
  5. Move the TickTock thread from the ClockView to the ClockWidget constructor; this will allow the ClockWidget to operate independently. Change any references for clock to this:
    Runnable redraw = () -> {
  while (!this.isDisposed()) {
 ...

Creating views and widgets

This section introduces views and widgets by creating clocks that can be used to display time zones in Eclipse.

Time for action – creating a view

The Eclipse UI consists of multiple views, which are the rectangular areas that display content, such as the Outline, Console, or Package Explorer. In Eclipse 3.x, views are created by adding an extension point to an existing plug-in, or using a template. A clock.ui plug-in will be created to host the clock widgets and views.

  1. Open the plug-in wizard by navigating to File | New | Other | Plug-in Project. Enter the details as follows:

    1. Set Project name to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.

    2. Ensure that Use default location is selected.

    3. Ensure that Create a Java project is selected.

    4. The Eclipse Version should be targeted to 3.5 or greater.

  2. Click on Next again, and fill in the plug-in properties:

    1. Set ID to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.

    2. Set Version to 1.0.0.qualifier.

    3. Set Name to Clock.

    4. Set Vendor to PacktPub.

    5. Ensure that Generate an Activator is selected.

    6. Set the Activator to com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.Activator.

    7. Ensure that This plug-in will make contributions to the UI is selected.

    8. Rich...

Time for action – drawing a custom view

An SWT Canvas can be used to provide custom rendering for a view. As a starting point for drawing a clock, the Canvas will use drawArc to create a circle.

  1. Remove the content of the ClockView, leaving behind an empty implementation of the setFocus and createPartControl methods.

  2. Run the target Eclipse instance and you will see that the ClockView is now empty.

  3. Create a new method called drawClock that takes a PaintEvent, and use the graphics context gc from the event to draw the circle.

  4. In the createPartControl method, do the following:

    1. Create a new Canvas, which is a drawable widget.

    2. Add a PaintListener to the Canvas that uses a method reference to the drawClock method.

  5. The code will look like this:

    package com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui.views;
import org.eclipse.swt.*;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.*;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.*;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;
public class ClockView extends ViewPart {
  public void createPartControl(Composite parent) ...

Time for action – drawing a seconds hand

A clock with no hands and no numbers is just a circle. To change this, a second hand will be drawn using a filled arc.

Since arcs are drawn anticlockwise from 0 (on the right, or 3 o'clock) through 90 degrees (12 o'clock), then 180 degrees (9 o'clock), then 270 degrees (6 o'clock), and finally back to 360 degrees (3 o'clock), it is possible to calculate the arc's position for the second hand using the expression (15 – seconds) * 6 % 360.

  1. Go to the drawClock method of the ClockView class.

  2. Add a variable called seconds that is initialized to LocalTime.now().getSecond().

  3. Get the SWT.COLOR_BLUE via the display, and store it in a local variable, blue.

  4. Set the background color of the graphics context to blue.

  5. Draw an arc using the formula mentioned earlier to draw the second hand.

  6. The code should look like this:

    public void paintControl(PaintEvent e) {
  e.gc.drawArc(e.x, e.y, e.width-1, e.height-1, 0, 360);
  int seconds = LocalTime.now().getSecond();
  int arc...

Time for action – animating the second hand

The second hand is drawn with a redraw on the Canvas, but this will need to be run periodically. If it is redrawn once per second, it can emulate a clock ticking.

Eclipse has a jobs plug-in, which would be just right for this task, but this will be covered in Chapter 4, Interacting with the User. So to begin with, a simple Thread will be used to issue the redraw.

  1. Open the ClockView class.

  2. Add the following at the bottom of the createPartControl method:

    Runnable redraw = () -> {
  while (!clock.isDisposed()) {
    clock.redraw();
    try {
      Thread.sleep(1000);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      return;
    }
  }
};
new Thread(redraw, "TickTock").start();

  3. Relaunch the test Eclipse instance, and open the Clock View.

  4. Open the host Eclipse instance and look in the Console View for the errors.

What just happened?

When the ClockView is shown, a Thread is created and started, which redraws the clock once per second. When it is shown, an exception...

Time for action – running on the UI thread

To execute code on the UI thread, Runnable instances must be posted to the Display via one of two methods, syncExec or asyncExec. The syncExec method runs the code synchronously (the caller blocks until the code has been run) while the asyncExec method runs the code asynchronously (the caller continues while the code is run in the background).

The Display class is SWT's handle to a monitor (so a runtime may have more than one Display object, and each may have its own resolution). To get hold of an instance, call either Display.getCurrent() or Display.getDefault(). However, it's much better to get a Display from an associated view or widget. In this case, the Canvas has an associated Display.

  1. Go to the TickTock thread inside the createPartControl method of the ClockView class.

  2. Inside the redraw lambda, replace the call to clock.redraw() with this:

    // clock.redraw();
clock.getDisplay().asyncExec(() -> clock.redraw());

  3. Run the target Eclipse instance...

Time for action – creating a reusable widget

Although the ClockView shows a single animated clock, creating an independent widget will allow the clock to be reused in other places.

  1. Create a new class in the com.packtpub.e4.clock.ui package, called ClockWidget, that extends Canvas.

  2. Create a constructor that takes a Composite parent and an int style bits parameter, and pass them to the superclass:

    public ClockWidget(Composite parent, int style) {
  super(parent, style);
}

  3. Move the implementation of the drawClock method from the ClockView to the ClockWidget. Remove the PaintListener references from the ClockView class.

  4. In the ClockWidget constructor, register a PaintListener that delegates the call to the drawClock method:

    addPaintListener(this::drawClock);

  5. Move the TickTock thread from the ClockView to the ClockWidget constructor; this will allow the ClockWidget to operate independently. Change any references for clock to this:

    Runnable redraw = () -> {
  while (!this.isDisposed()) {
    this.getDisplay...

Time for action – using layouts

Now that the ClockWidget has been created, multiple instances can be added into the ClockView.

  1. Modify the createPartControl method in the ClockView class to create three ClockWidget instances, and assign them to local variables:

    final ClockWidget clock1 = new ClockWidget(parent, SWT.NONE);
final ClockWidget clock2 = new ClockWidget(parent, SWT.NONE);
final ClockWidget clock3 = new ClockWidget(parent, SWT.NONE);

  2. Run the target Eclipse instance, and show the Clock View. Three clocks will be shown, counting in seconds:

  3. At the start of the ClockView class's createPartControl method, create a new RowLayout with SWT.HORIZONTAL, and then set it as the layout on the parent Composite:

    public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
  RowLayout layout = new RowLayout(SWT.HORIZONTAL);
  parent.setLayout(layout);

  4. Run the code again now, and the clocks will be in a horizontal row:

  5. Resize the view; the clocks will flow into different rows:

    Note

    The RowLayout has a number of fields...

Managing resources

One of the challenges in adopting SWT is that native resources must be disposed when they are no longer needed. Unlike AWT or Swing, which perform these operations automatically when an object is garbage-collected, SWT needs manual resource management.

Note

Why does SWT need manual resource management?

A common question asked is why SWT has this rule when Java has had perfectly acceptable garbage collection for many years. In part, it's because SWT pre-dates acceptable garbage collection, but it's also to try and return native resources as soon as they are no longer needed.

From a performance perspective, adding a finalize method to an object also causes the garbage collector to work harder; much of the speed in today's garbage collectors is because they don't need to call methods as they are invariably missing. It also hurts in SWT's case because the object must post its dispose request onto the UI thread, which delays its garbage collection until the object becomes reachable...

Time for action – getting colorful

To add an option for the ClockWidget to have a different color, an instance must be obtained instead of the hardcoded BLUE reference. Since Color objects are Resource objects, they must be disposed correctly when the widget is disposed.

To avoid passing in a Color directly, the constructor will be changed to take an RGB value (which is three int values), and use that to instantiate a Color object to store for later. The lifetime of the Color instance can be tied to the lifetime of the ClockWidget.

  1. Add a private final Color field called color to the ClockWidget:

    private final Color color;

  2. Modify the constructor of the ClockWidget to take an RGB instance, and use it to instantiate a Color object. Note that the color is leaked at this point, and will be fixed later:

    public ClockWidget(Composite parent, int style, RGB rgb) {
  super(parent, style);
  // FIXME color is leaked!
  this.color = new Color(parent.getDisplay(), rgb);
  ...

  3. Modify the drawClock method to...

Time for action – finding the leak

It is necessary to know how many resources are allocated in order to know whether the leak has been plugged or not. Fortunately, SWT provides a mechanism to do this via the Display and the DeviceData class. Normally, this is done by a separate plug-in, but in this example, the ClockView will be modified to show this behavior.

  1. At the start of the ClockView class's createPartControl method, add a call to obtain the number of allocated objects, via the DeviceData of the Display class:

    public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
  Object[] objects = parent.getDisplay().getDeviceData().objects;

  2. Iterate through the allocated objects, counting how many are instances of Color:

      int count = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < objects.length; i++) {
    if (objects[i] instanceof Color) {
      count++;
    }
  }

  3. Print the count to the standard error stream:

    System.err.println("There are " + count + " Color instances");

  4. Now run the code in debug mode and show the Clock View...

Time for action – plugging the leak

Now that the leak has been discovered, it needs to be fixed. The solution is to call dispose on the Color once the view itself is removed.

A quick investigation of the ClockWidget suggests that overriding dispose might work, though this is not the correct solution; see later for why.

  1. Create a dispose method in ClockWidget with the following code:

    @Override
public void dispose() {
  if (color != null && !color.isDisposed())
    color.dispose();
  super.dispose();
}

  2. Run the target Eclipse application in debug mode (with the tracing enabled, as before) and open and close the view. The output will show something like this:

    There are 87 Color instances
There are 91 Color instances
There are 94 Color instances
There are 98 Color instances

  3. Remove the dispose method (since it doesn't work as intended) and modify the constructor of the ClockWidget to add an anonymous DisposeListener that disposes of the associated Color:

    public ClockWidget(Composite parent, int...

Interacting with the user

The whole point of a user interface is to interact with the user. Having a view that displays information may be useful, but it is often necessary to ask the user for data or respond to user actions.

Time for action – getting in focus

To allow the time zone of the clock widgets to be changed, a drop-down box (known as Combo) as well as a Button will be added to the view. The Combo will be created from a set of ZoneId instances.

  1. Create a timeZones field in the ClockView class:

    private Combo timeZones;

  2. At the end of the createPartControl method, add this snippet to create the drop-down list:

    public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
  ...
  timeZones = new Combo(parent, SWT.DROP_DOWN);
  timeZones.setVisibleItemCount(5);
  for (String zone : ZoneId.getAvailableZoneIds()) {
    timeZones.add(zone);
  }
}

  3. Run the target Eclipse and open the Clock View again; a list of time zone names will be shown in a drop-down:

  4. It's conventional to set the focus on a particular widget when a view is opened. Implement the appropriate call in the ClockView method setFocus:

    public void setFocus() {
  timeZones.setFocus();
}

  5. Run Eclipse and show the Clock View; the time zone drop-down widget will be focused...

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Page 1 of 22

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Key benefits

  • Create useful plug-ins to make Eclipse work for you
  • Learn how to migrate Eclipse 3.x plug-ins to Eclipse 4.x
  • From automation to testing, find out how to get your IDE performing at an impressive standard

Description

Eclipse is used by everyone from indie devs to NASA engineers. Its popularity is underpinned by its impressive plug-in ecosystem, which allows it to be extended to meet the needs of whoever is using it. This book shows you how to take full advantage of the Eclipse IDE by building your own useful plug-ins from start to finish. Taking you through the complete process of plug-in development, from packaging to automated testing and deployment, this book is a direct route to quicker, cleaner Java development. It may be for beginners, but we're confident that you'll develop new skills quickly. Pretty soon you'll feel like an expert, in complete control of your IDE. Don't let Eclipse define you - extend it with the plug-ins you need today for smarter, happier, and more effective development.

Who is this book for?

This book is for Java developers familiar with Eclipse who need more from the IDE. This book will sharpen your confidence and make you a more productive developer with a tool that supports rather than limits you.

What you will learn

  • Create plug-ins for Eclipse 4.x
  • Test plug-ins automatically with JUnit
  • Display tree and table information in views
  • Upgrade Eclipse 3.x plug-ins to Eclipse 4.x
  • Find out how to build user interfaces from SWT and JFace
  • Run tasks in the background and update the user interface asynchronously
  • Automate builds of plug-ins and features
  • Automate user interface tests with SWTBot /list

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 04, 2016
Length: 458 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783980697
Category :
Programming
Languages :
Java
Concepts :
Application Development
Tools :
Eclipse

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Product Details

Publication date : Aug 04, 2016
Length: 458 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783980697
Category :
Programming
Languages :
Java
Concepts :
Application Development
Tools :
Eclipse

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Table of Contents

16 Chapters
1. Creating Your First Plug-in Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Creating Your First Plug-in
Getting started
Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment
Time for action – creating a plug-in
Time for action – launching Eclipse from within Eclipse
Debugging a plug-in
Time for action – debugging a plug-in
Time for action – updating code in the debugger
Time for action – setting up step filtering
Time for action – breaking at method entry and exit
Time for action – setting a conditional breakpoint
Time for action – catching exceptions
Time for action – inspecting and watching variables
Summary
2. Creating Views with SWT Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Creating Views with SWT
Creating views and widgets
Time for action – creating a view
Time for action – drawing a custom view
Time for action – drawing a seconds hand
Time for action – animating the second hand
Time for action – running on the UI thread
Time for action – creating a reusable widget
Time for action – using layouts
Managing resources
Time for action – getting colorful
Time for action – finding the leak
Time for action – plugging the leak
Interacting with the user
Time for action – getting in focus
Time for action – responding to input
Using other SWT widgets
Time for action – adding items to the tray
Time for action – responding to the user
Time for action – modal and other effects
Time for action – groups and tab folders
Summary
3. Creating JFace Viewers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Creating JFace Viewers
Why JFace?
Creating TreeViewers
Time for action – creating a tree viewer
Time for action – using Images in JFace
Time for action – styling label providers
Sorting and filtering
Time for action – sorting items in a viewer
Time for action – filtering items in a viewer
Interaction
Time for action – adding a double-click listener
Tabular data
Time for action – viewing time zones in tables
Selection
Time for action – propagating selection
Time for action – responding to selection changes
Summary
4. Interacting with the User Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Interacting with the User
Creating menus, commands, and handlers
Time for action – installing the E4 tools
Time for action – creating commands and handlers
Time for action – binding commands to keys
Time for action – changing contexts
Time for action – enabling and disabling menus items
Time for action – contributing commands to pop-up menus
Jobs and progress
Time for action – running operations in the background
Time for action – reporting progress
Time for action – dealing with cancellation
Time for action – using subtasks and sub-progress monitors
Time for action – using null progress monitors and sub monitors
Time for action – setting job properties
Reporting errors
Time for action – showing errors
Summary
5. Working with Preferences Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Working with Preferences
Eclipse Preferences
Time for action – persisting a value
Time for action – injecting preferences
Time for action – injecting individual preferences
Time for action – responding to preference changes
Preference pages
Time for action – creating a preference page
Time for action – creating warning and error messages
Time for action: choosing from a list
Time for action – aligning field editors with a grid
Time for action – placing the preferences page
Time for action: using other field editors
Time for action – searching for preferences
Summary
6. Working with Resources Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Working with Resources
Using the workspace and resources
Time for action – creating an editor
Time for action – writing the markup parser
Time for action – building the builder
Time for action – iterating through resources
Time for action – creating resources
Time for action – implementing incremental builds
Time for action: handling deletion
Using natures
Time for action – creating a nature
Using markers
Time for action – error markers if file is empty
Time for action – registering a marker type
Summary
7. Creating Eclipse 4 Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Creating Eclipse 4 Applications
Time for action – installing E4 tooling
Time for action – creating an E4 application
Time for action – creating a part
Using services and contexts
Time for action – adding logging
Time for action – getting the window
Time for action – obtaining the selection
Time for action – dealing with events
Time for action – calculating values on demand
Time for action – interacting with the UI
Using commands, handlers, and menu items
Time for action – wiring a menu to a command with a handler
Time for action: passing command parameters
Time for action – creating a direct menu and keybindings
Time for action – creating a pop-up menu and a view menu
Creating custom injectable classes
Time for action – creating a simple service
Time for action – injecting subtypes
Summary
8. Migrating to Eclipse 4.x Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Migrating to Eclipse 4.x
Why Eclipse 4.x?
Time for action – creating a migration component
Time for action – updating to e4view
Time for action – upgrading the actions
Time for action – creating toolbars
Time for action – adding the view menu
Time for action – adding the pop-up
Migrating to Eclipse 4.x patterns
Time for action – creating a model fragment
Time for action – migrating the commands and handlers
Time for action – creating the view menu
Time for action – defining the pop-up view in the fragment
Summary
9. Styling Eclipse 4 Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Styling Eclipse 4 Applications
Styling Eclipse with CSS
Time for action – styling the UI with CSS
Time for action – using custom CSS classes
Using the Eclipse spies
Time for action – using the CSS Spy
Time for action – integrating the spy into a product
Styling a custom widget
Time for action – adding the clock
Time for action – using a CSS property
Time for action – going to the dark side
Time for action – adding themes
Time for action – switching between themes
Summary
10. Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products
Grouping plug-ins with features
Time for action – creating a feature
Time for action – exporting a feature
Time for action – installing a feature
Time for action – categorizing the update site
Time for action – depending on other features
Time for action – branding features
Building applications and products
Time for action – creating a headless application
Time for action – creating a product
Target platforms
Time for action – creating a target definition
Time for action – switching to a specific version
Summary
11. Automated Testing of Plug-ins Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Automated Testing of Plug-ins
Using JUnit for automated testing
Time for action – adding dependencies to the target platform
Time for action – writing a simple JUnit 4 test case
Time for action – writing a plug-in test
Using SWTBot for user interface testing
Time for action – writing an SWTBot test
Time for action – working with menus
Working with SWTBot
Time for action – hiding the welcome screen
Time for action – avoiding SWTBot runtime errors
Working with views
Time for action: showing views
Time for action – interrogating views
Interacting with the UI
Time for action – getting values from the UI
Time for action – waiting for a condition
Summary
12. Automated Builds with Tycho Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Automated Builds with Tycho
Using Maven to build Eclipse plug-ins with Tycho
Time for action – installing Maven
Time for action – building with Tycho
Building features and update sites with Tycho
Time for action – creating a parent project
Time for action – building a feature
Time for action – building an update site
Time for action – building a product
Time for action – using the target platform
Testing and releasing
Time for action – running automated tests
Time for action – changing the version numbers
Signing update sites
Time for action – creating a self-signed certificate
Time for action – signing the plug-ins
Time for action – serving an update site
Summary
13. Contributing to Eclipse Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. Contributing to Eclipse
Open source contributions
Time for action – installing the sources
Time for action – debugging the platform
Time for action – modifying the platform
Time for action – checking out from EGit and Git
Time for action – configuring the SWT project
Contributing to Eclipse
Time for action – creating an account at Eclipse
Time for action – creating a bug
Time for action – setting up a Gerrit profile
Time for action – committing and pushing a patch
Summary
A. Using OSGi Services to Dynamically Wire Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Using OSGi Services to Dynamically Wire Applications
Services overview
Registering a service programmatically
Registering a service declaratively
Dynamic services
Dynamic service configuration
Summary
B. Pop Quiz Answers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 1 – Creating Your First Plug-in
Chapter 2 – Creating Views with SWT
Chapter 3 – Creating JFace Viewers
Chapter 4 – Interacting with the User
Chapter 5 – Storing Preferences and Settings
Chapter 6 – Working with Resources
Chapter 7 – Creating Eclipse 4 Applications
Chapter 8 – Migrating to Eclipse 4.x
Chapter 9 – Styling Eclipse 4 Applications
Chapter 10 – Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products
Chapter 11 – Automated Testing of Plug-ins
Chapter 12 – Automated Builds with Tycho
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index

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Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(2 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 0%
3 star 50%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Madame Sep 20, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
It is a great book for those who want to start programming plugins in Eclipse. It contains easy-to-follow recipes on common programming challenges on the eclipse platform ranging from how to start programming a plugin to how to automate plugin tests. I also liked the fact that it contains the two latest versions of eclipse. I totally recommend it!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Sunny Zhang Jan 26, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
This book does not show how to create your own Extension point; If no mistake, it shows only how to use the extension points.
Amazon Verified review Amazon

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About the author

Profile icon Alex Blewitt
Alex Blewitt
contacted on 30 aug 16 _____________ Dr Alex Blewitt has over 20 years of experience in Objective-C and has been using Apple frameworks since NeXTstep 3.0. He upgraded his NeXTstation for a TiBook when Apple released Mac OS X in 2001 and has been developing on it ever since. Alex currently works for an investment bank in London, writes for the on-line technology news site InfoQ and has published two other books for Packt publishing. He also has a number of apps on the Apple AppStore through Bandlem Limited. When he's not working on technology, and if the weather is nice, he likes to go flying from the nearby Cranfield airport. Alex writes regularly at his blog, http://alblue.bandlem.com, as well tweeting regularly from Twitter as @alblue. Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the ongoing love and support of my wife Amy, who has helped me through both the highs and lows of life. She gave me the freedom to work during the many late nights and weekends that it takes to produce a book and its associated code repository. She truly is the Lem of my life. I'd also like to thank my parents, Ann and Derek, for their encouragement and support during my formative years. It was this work ethic that allowed me to start my technology career as a teenager and to incorporate my first company before I was 25. I'd also like to congratulate them on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2015, and I look forward to reaching that goal with Amy. Thanks are due especially to the reviewer of this version of the book: Antonio Bello, as well as the previous version of this book: Nate Cook, James Robert and Arvid Gerstmann, who provided excellent feedback on the contents of this book during development and caught many errors in both the text and code. Any remaining errors are my own. I'd also like to thank my children Sam and Holly for inspiring me and hope that they too can achieve anything that they set their minds to. Finally, I'd like to thank Ben Moseley and Eren Kotan, both of whom introduced me to NeXT in the first place and set my career going on a twenty year journey to this book.
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