Views

Identifier: org.eclipse.ui.views

Description: This extension point is used to define additional views for the workbench. A view is a visual component within a workbench page. It is typically used to navigate a hierarchy of information (like the workspace), open an editor, or display properties for the active editor. The user can make a view visible from the View menu or close it from the view local title bar.

In order to reduce the visual clutter in the Show View Dialog, views should be grouped using categories.

Configuration Markup:

   <!ELEMENT extension (category | view)*>

   <!ATTLIST extension
     point CDATA #REQUIRED
     id    CDATA #IMPLIED
     name  CDATA #IMPLIED
   >

   <!ELEMENT category EMPTY>

   <!ATTLIST category
     id             CDATA #REQUIRED
     name           CDATA #REQUIRED
     parentCategory CDATA #IMPLIED
   >

   <!ELEMENT view EMPTY>

   <!ATTLIST view
     id                 CDATA #REQUIRED
     name               CDATA #REQUIRED
     category           CDATA #IMPLIED
     class              CDATA #REQUIRED
     icon               CDATA #IMPLIED
     fastViewWidthRatio CDATA #IMPLIED
   >

Examples: The following is an example of the extension point:

   <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views"> 
      <category 
         id="com.xyz.views.XYZviews" 
         name="XYZ"> 
      </category> 
      <view 
         id="com.xyz.views.XYZView" 
         name="XYZ View" 
         category="com.xyz.views.XYZviews" 
         class="com.xyz.views.XYZView" 
         icon="icons/XYZ.gif"> 
      </view> 
   </extension> 

API Information: The value of the class attribute must be a fully qualified name of the class that implements org.eclipse.ui.IViewPart. It is common practice to subclass org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart when developing a new view.

Supplied Implementation: The workbench provides a number of standard views including Navigator, Properties, Outline and Tasks. From the user point of view, these views are no different from any other view provided by the plug-ins. All the views can be shown from the "Show View" submenu of the "Window" menu. The position of a view is persistent: it is saved when the view is closed and restored when the view is reopened in a single session. The position is also persisted between workbench sessions.

Copyright (c) 2002 IBM Corporation and others. All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Common Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/cpl-v10.html