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  • Book Overview & Buying Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide
  • Table Of Contents Toc
Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide

Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide - Second Edition

By : Alex Blewitt
4 (2)
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Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide

Eclipse Plug-in Development Beginner's Guide

4 (2)
By: Alex Blewitt
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Sections
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Time for action – heading
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
Lock Free Chapter
1
1. Creating Your First Plug-in
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1. Creating Your First Plug-in
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Getting started
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Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment
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Time for action – creating a plug-in
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Time for action – launching Eclipse from within Eclipse
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Debugging a plug-in
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Time for action – debugging a plug-in
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Time for action – updating code in the debugger
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Time for action – setting up step filtering
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Time for action – breaking at method entry and exit
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Time for action – setting a conditional breakpoint
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Time for action – catching exceptions
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Time for action – inspecting and watching variables
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Summary
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2. Creating Views with SWT
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2. Creating Views with SWT
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Creating views and widgets
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Time for action – creating a view
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Time for action – drawing a custom view
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Time for action – drawing a seconds hand
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Time for action – animating the second hand
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Time for action – running on the UI thread
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Time for action – creating a reusable widget
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Time for action – using layouts
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Managing resources
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Time for action – getting colorful
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Time for action – finding the leak
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Time for action – plugging the leak
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Interacting with the user
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Time for action – getting in focus
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Time for action – responding to input
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Using other SWT widgets
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Time for action – adding items to the tray
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Time for action – responding to the user
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Time for action – modal and other effects
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Time for action – groups and tab folders
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Summary
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3. Creating JFace Viewers
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3. Creating JFace Viewers
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Why JFace?
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Creating TreeViewers
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Time for action – creating a tree viewer
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Time for action – using Images in JFace
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Time for action – styling label providers
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Sorting and filtering
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Time for action – sorting items in a viewer
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Time for action – filtering items in a viewer
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Interaction
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Time for action – adding a double-click listener
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Tabular data
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Time for action – viewing time zones in tables
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Selection
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Time for action – propagating selection
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Time for action – responding to selection changes
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Summary
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4. Interacting with the User
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4. Interacting with the User
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Creating menus, commands, and handlers
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Time for action – installing the E4 tools
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Time for action – creating commands and handlers
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Time for action – binding commands to keys
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Time for action – changing contexts
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Time for action – enabling and disabling menus items
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Time for action – contributing commands to pop-up menus
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Jobs and progress
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Time for action – running operations in the background
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Time for action – reporting progress
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Time for action – dealing with cancellation
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Time for action – using subtasks and sub-progress monitors
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Time for action – using null progress monitors and sub monitors
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Time for action – setting job properties
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Reporting errors
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Time for action – showing errors
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Summary
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5. Working with Preferences
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5. Working with Preferences
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Eclipse Preferences
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Time for action – persisting a value
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Time for action – injecting preferences
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Time for action – injecting individual preferences
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Time for action – responding to preference changes
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Preference pages
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Time for action – creating a preference page
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Time for action – creating warning and error messages
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Time for action: choosing from a list
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Time for action – aligning field editors with a grid
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Time for action – placing the preferences page
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Time for action: using other field editors
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Time for action – searching for preferences
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Summary
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6. Working with Resources
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6. Working with Resources
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Using the workspace and resources
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Time for action – creating an editor
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Time for action – writing the markup parser
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Time for action – building the builder
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Time for action – iterating through resources
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Time for action – creating resources
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Time for action – implementing incremental builds
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Time for action: handling deletion
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Using natures
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Time for action – creating a nature
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Using markers
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Time for action – error markers if file is empty
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Time for action – registering a marker type
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Summary
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7. Creating Eclipse 4 Applications
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7. Creating Eclipse 4 Applications
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Time for action – installing E4 tooling
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Time for action – creating an E4 application
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Time for action – creating a part
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Using services and contexts
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Time for action – adding logging
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Time for action – getting the window
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Time for action – obtaining the selection
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Time for action – dealing with events
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Time for action – calculating values on demand
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Time for action – interacting with the UI
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Using commands, handlers, and menu items
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Time for action – wiring a menu to a command with a handler
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Time for action: passing command parameters
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Time for action – creating a direct menu and keybindings
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Time for action – creating a pop-up menu and a view menu
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Creating custom injectable classes
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Time for action – creating a simple service
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Time for action – injecting subtypes
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Summary
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8. Migrating to Eclipse 4.x
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8. Migrating to Eclipse 4.x
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Why Eclipse 4.x?
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Time for action – creating a migration component
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Time for action – updating to e4view
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Time for action – upgrading the actions
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Time for action – creating toolbars
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Time for action – adding the view menu
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Time for action – adding the pop-up
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Migrating to Eclipse 4.x patterns
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Time for action – creating a model fragment
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Time for action – migrating the commands and handlers
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Time for action – creating the view menu
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Time for action – defining the pop-up view in the fragment
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Summary
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9. Styling Eclipse 4 Applications
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9. Styling Eclipse 4 Applications
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Styling Eclipse with CSS
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Time for action – styling the UI with CSS
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Time for action – using custom CSS classes
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Using the Eclipse spies
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Time for action – using the CSS Spy
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Time for action – integrating the spy into a product
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Styling a custom widget
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Time for action – adding the clock
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Time for action – using a CSS property
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Time for action – going to the dark side
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Time for action – adding themes
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Time for action – switching between themes
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Summary
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10. Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products
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10. Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products
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Grouping plug-ins with features
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Time for action – creating a feature
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Time for action – exporting a feature
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Time for action – installing a feature
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Time for action – categorizing the update site
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Time for action – depending on other features
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Time for action – branding features
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Building applications and products
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Time for action – creating a headless application
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Time for action – creating a product
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Target platforms
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Time for action – creating a target definition
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Time for action – switching to a specific version
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Summary
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11. Automated Testing of Plug-ins
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11. Automated Testing of Plug-ins
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Using JUnit for automated testing
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Time for action – adding dependencies to the target platform
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Time for action – writing a simple JUnit 4 test case
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Time for action – writing a plug-in test
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Using SWTBot for user interface testing
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Time for action – writing an SWTBot test
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Time for action – working with menus
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Working with SWTBot
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Time for action – hiding the welcome screen
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Time for action – avoiding SWTBot runtime errors
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Working with views
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Time for action: showing views
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Time for action – interrogating views
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Interacting with the UI
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Time for action – getting values from the UI
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Time for action – waiting for a condition
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Summary
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12. Automated Builds with Tycho
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12. Automated Builds with Tycho
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Using Maven to build Eclipse plug-ins with Tycho
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Time for action – installing Maven
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Time for action – building with Tycho
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Building features and update sites with Tycho
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Time for action – creating a parent project
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Time for action – building a feature
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Time for action – building an update site
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Time for action – building a product
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Time for action – using the target platform
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Testing and releasing
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Time for action – running automated tests
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Time for action – changing the version numbers
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Signing update sites
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Time for action – creating a self-signed certificate
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Time for action – signing the plug-ins
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Time for action – serving an update site
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Summary
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13. Contributing to Eclipse
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13. Contributing to Eclipse
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Open source contributions
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Time for action – installing the sources
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Time for action – debugging the platform
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Time for action – modifying the platform
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Time for action – checking out from EGit and Git
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Time for action – configuring the SWT project
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Contributing to Eclipse
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Time for action – creating an account at Eclipse
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Time for action – creating a bug
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Time for action – setting up a Gerrit profile
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Time for action – committing and pushing a patch
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Summary
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A. Using OSGi Services to Dynamically Wire Applications
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A. Using OSGi Services to Dynamically Wire Applications
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Services overview
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Registering a service programmatically
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Registering a service declaratively
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Dynamic services
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Dynamic service configuration
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Summary
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B. Pop Quiz Answers
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Chapter 1 – Creating Your First Plug-in
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Chapter 2 – Creating Views with SWT
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Chapter 3 – Creating JFace Viewers
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Chapter 4 – Interacting with the User
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Chapter 5 – Storing Preferences and Settings
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Chapter 6 – Working with Resources
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Chapter 7 – Creating Eclipse 4 Applications
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Chapter 8 – Migrating to Eclipse 4.x
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Chapter 9 – Styling Eclipse 4 Applications
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Chapter 10 – Creating Features, Update Sites, Applications, and Products
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Chapter 11 – Automated Testing of Plug-ins
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Chapter 12 – Automated Builds with Tycho
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Index
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Index

Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment

Eclipse is a Java-based application; it needs Java installed. Eclipse is distributed as a compressed archive and doesn't require an explicit installation step.

  1. To obtain Java, go to http://java.com and follow the instructions to download and install Java.

    Tip

    Note that Java comes in two flavors: a 32-bit installation and a 64-bit installation. If the running OS is 32-bit, then install the 32-bit JDK; alternatively, if the running OS is 64-bit, then install the 64-bit JDK.

  2. Running java -version should give output like this:
    java version "1.8.0_92"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_92-b14)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.92-b14, mixed mode)
  3. Go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ and select the Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers distribution.
  4. Download the one that matches the installed JDK. Running java -version should report either of these:
    • If it's a 32-bit JDK:
      Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
    • If it's a 64-bit JDK:
      Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM

    Note

    On Linux, Eclipse requires GTK+ 2 or 3 to be installed. Most Linux distributions have a window manager based on GNOME, which provides GTK+ 2 or 3.

  5. To install Eclipse, download and extract the contents to a suitable location. Eclipse is shipped as an archive, and needs no administrator privileges to install. Do not run it from a networked drive as this will cause performance problems.
  6. Note that Eclipse needs to write to the folder where it is extracted, so it's normal that the contents are writable afterwards. Generally, installing in /Applications or C:\Program Files as an administrator account is not recommended.
  7. Run Eclipse by double-clicking on the Eclipse icon, or by running eclipse.exe (Windows), eclipse (Linux), or Eclipse.app (macOS).
  8. On startup, the splash screen will be shown:
    Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment
  9. Choose a workspace, which is the location in which projects are to be stored, and click on OK:
    Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment
  10. Close the welcome screen by clicking on the cross in the tab next to the welcome text. The welcome screen can be reopened by navigating to Help | Welcome:
    Time for action – setting up the Eclipse environment

What just happened?

Eclipse needs Java to run, and so the first step involved in installing Eclipse is ensuring that an up-to-date Java installation is available. By default, Eclipse will find a copy of Java installed on the path or from one of the standard locations. It is also possible to specify a different Java by using the -vm command-line argument.

If the splash screen doesn't show, then the Eclipse version may be incompatible with the JDK (for example, a 64-bit JDK with a 32-bit Eclipse, or vice versa). Common error messages shown at the launcher may include Unable to find companion launcher or a cryptic message about being unable to find an SWT library.

On Windows, there is an additional eclipsec.exe launcher that allows log messages to be displayed on the console. This is sometimes useful if Eclipse fails to load and no other message is displayed. Other operating systems can use the eclipse command; and both support the -consolelog argument, which can display more diagnostic information about problems with launching Eclipse.

The Eclipse workspace is a directory used for two purposes: as the default project location, and to hold the .metadata directory containing Eclipse settings, preferences, and other runtime information. The Eclipse runtime log is stored in the .metadata/.log file.

The workspace chooser dialog has an option to set a default workspace. It can be changed within Eclipse by navigating to File | Switch Workspace. It can also be overridden by specifying a different workspace location with the -data command-line argument.

Finally, the welcome screen is useful for first-time users, but it is worth closing (rather than minimizing) once Eclipse has started.

Creating your first plug-in

In this task, Eclipse's plug-in wizard will be used to create a plug-in.

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