org.eclipse.ui.plugin
Class AbstractUIPlugin

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--org.eclipse.core.runtime.Plugin
        |
        +--org.eclipse.ui.plugin.AbstractUIPlugin

public abstract class AbstractUIPlugin

extends Plugin

Abstract base class for plug-ins that integrate with the Eclipse platform UI.

Subclasses obtain the following capabilities:

Preferences

• The platform core runtime contains general support for plug-in preferences (org.eclipse.core.runtime.Preferences). This class provides appropriate conversion to the older JFace preference API (org.eclipse.jface.preference.IPreferenceStore).
• The method getPreferenceStore returns the JFace preference store (cf. Plugin.getPluginPreferences which returns a core runtime preferences object.
• Subclasses may reimplement initializeDefaultPreferences to set up any default values for preferences using JFace API. In this case, initializeDefaultPluginPreferences should not be overridden.
• Subclasses may reimplement initializeDefaultPluginPreferences to set up any default values for preferences using core runtime API. In this case, initializeDefaultPreferences should not be overridden.
• Preferences are also saved automatically on plug-in shutdown. However, saving preferences immediately after changing them is strongly recommended, since that ensures that preference settings are not lost even in the event of a platform crash.

Dialogs

• The dialog store is read the first time getDialogSettings is called.
• The dialog store allows the plug-in to "record" important choices made by the user in a wizard or dialog, so that the next time the wizard/dialog is used the widgets can be defaulted to better values. A wizard could also use it to record the last 5 values a user entered into an editable combo - to show "recent values".
• The dialog store is found in the file whose name is given by the constant FN_DIALOG_STORE. A dialog store file is first looked for in the plug-in's read/write state area; if not found there, the plug-in's install directory is checked. This allows a plug-in to ship with a read-only copy of a dialog store file containing initial values for certain settings.
• Plug-in code can call saveDialogSettings to cause settings to be saved in the plug-in's read/write state area. A plug-in may opt to do this each time a wizard or dialog is closed to ensure the latest information is always safe on disk.
• Dialog settings are also saved automatically on plug-in shutdown.

Images

• A typical UI plug-in will have some images that are used very frequently and so need to be cached and shared. The plug-in's image registry provides a central place for a plug-in to store its common images. Images managed by the registry are created lazily as needed, and will be automatically disposed of when the plug-in shuts down. Note that the number of registry images should be kept to a minimum since many OSs have severe limits on the number of images that can be in memory at once.

For easy access to your plug-in object, use the singleton pattern. Declare a static variable in your plug-in class for the singleton. Store the first (and only) instance of the plug-in class in the singleton when it is created. Then access the singleton when needed through a static getDefault method.

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class org.eclipse.core.runtime.Plugin

PREFERENCES_DEFAULT_OVERRIDE_BASE_NAME, PREFERENCES_DEFAULT_OVERRIDE_FILE_NAME

Constructor Summary

AbstractUIPlugin(IPluginDescriptor descriptor)
Creates an abstract UI plug-in runtime object for the given plug-in descriptor.

Method Summary

protected ImageRegistry	createImageRegistry() Returns a new image registry for this plugin-in.
IDialogSettings	getDialogSettings() Returns the dialog settings for this UI plug-in.
ImageRegistry	getImageRegistry() Returns the image registry for this UI plug-in.
IPreferenceStore	getPreferenceStore() Returns the preference store for this UI plug-in.
IWorkbench	getWorkbench() Returns the Platform UI workbench.
protected void	initializeDefaultPluginPreferences() The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method forwards to initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore).
protected void	initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore store) Initializes a preference store with default preference values for this plug-in.
protected void	initializeImageRegistry(ImageRegistry reg) Initializes an image registry with images which are frequently used by the plugin-in.
protected void	loadDialogSettings() Loads the dialog settings for this plug-in.
protected void	loadPreferenceStore() Deprecated. As of Eclipse 2.0, a basic preference store exists for all plug-ins. This method now exists only for backwards compatibility. It is called as the plug-in's preference store is being initialized. The plug-ins preferences are loaded from the file regardless of what this method does.
protected void	refreshPluginActions() Refreshes the actions for the plugin.
protected void	saveDialogSettings() Saves this plug-in's dialog settings.
protected void	savePreferenceStore() Deprecated. As of Eclipse 2.0, preferences exist for all plug-ins. The equivalent of this method is Plugin.savePluginPreferences. This method now calls savePluginPreferences, and exists only for backwards compatibility.
void	shutdown() The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method saves this plug-in's preference and dialog stores and shuts down its image registry (if they are in use).
void	startup() The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method refreshes the plug-in actions.

Methods inherited from class org.eclipse.core.runtime.Plugin

find, find, getDescriptor, getLog, getPluginPreferences, getStateLocation, isDebugging, openStream, openStream, savePluginPreferences, setDebugging, toString

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

AbstractUIPlugin

public AbstractUIPlugin(IPluginDescriptor descriptor)

Creates an abstract UI plug-in runtime object for the given plug-in descriptor.

Note that instances of plug-in runtime classes are automatically created by the platform in the course of plug-in activation.

Parameters:

descriptor - the plug-in descriptor

Method Detail

createImageRegistry

protected ImageRegistry createImageRegistry()

Returns a new image registry for this plugin-in. The registry will be used to manage images which are frequently used by the plugin-in.

The default implementation of this method creates an empty registry. Subclasses may override this method if needed.

Returns:

ImageRegistry the resulting registry.

See Also:

getImageRegistry()

getDialogSettings

public IDialogSettings getDialogSettings()

Returns the dialog settings for this UI plug-in. The dialog settings is used to hold persistent state data for the various wizards and dialogs of this plug-in in the context of a workbench.

If an error occurs reading the dialog store, an empty one is quietly created and returned.

Subclasses may override this method but are not expected to.

Returns:

the dialog settings

getImageRegistry

public ImageRegistry getImageRegistry()

Returns the image registry for this UI plug-in.

The image registry contains the images used by this plug-in that are very frequently used and so need to be globally shared within the plug-in. Since many OSs have a severe limit on the number of images that can be in memory at any given time, a plug-in should only keep a small number of images in their registry.

Subclasses should reimplement initializeImageRegistry if they have custom graphic images to load.

Subclasses may override this method but are not expected to.

Returns:

the image registry

getPreferenceStore

public IPreferenceStore getPreferenceStore()

Returns the preference store for this UI plug-in. This preference store is used to hold persistent settings for this plug-in in the context of a workbench. Some of these settings will be user controlled, whereas others may be internal setting that are never exposed to the user.

If an error occurs reading the preference store, an empty preference store is quietly created, initialized with defaults, and returned.

Subclasses should reimplement initializeDefaultPreferences if they have custom graphic images to load.

Returns:

the preference store

getWorkbench

public IWorkbench getWorkbench()

Returns the Platform UI workbench.

This method exists as a convenience for plugin implementors. The workbench can also be accessed by invoking PlatformUI.getWorkbench().

initializeDefaultPreferences

protected void initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore store)

Initializes a preference store with default preference values for this plug-in.

This method is called after the preference store is initially loaded (default values are never stored in preference stores).

The default implementation of this method does nothing. Subclasses should reimplement this method if the plug-in has any preferences.

A subclass may reimplement this method to set default values for the preference store using JFace API. This is the older way of initializing default values. If this method is reimplemented, do not override initializeDefaultPluginPreferences().

Parameters:

store - the preference store to fill

initializeDefaultPluginPreferences

protected void initializeDefaultPluginPreferences()

The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method forwards to initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore).

A subclass may reimplement this method to set default values for the core runtime preference store in the standard way. This is the recommended way to do this. The older initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore) method serves a similar purpose. If this method is reimplemented, do not send super, and do not override initializeDefaultPreferences(IPreferenceStore).

Overrides:

initializeDefaultPluginPreferences in class Plugin

Since:

2.0

See Also:

initializeDefaultPreferences(org.eclipse.jface.preference.IPreferenceStore)

initializeImageRegistry

protected void initializeImageRegistry(ImageRegistry reg)

Initializes an image registry with images which are frequently used by the plugin-in.

The image registry contains the images used by this plug-in that are very frequently used and so need to be globally shared within the plug-in. Since many OSs have a severe limit on the number of images that can be in memory at any given time, each plug-in should only keep a small number of images in its registry.

Implementors should create a JFace image descriptor for each frequently used image. The descriptors describe how to create/find the image should it be needed. The image described by the descriptor is not actually allocated until someone retrieves it.

Subclasses may override this method to fill the image registry.

Returns:

ImageRegistry the resulting registry.

See Also:

getImageRegistry()

loadDialogSettings

protected void loadDialogSettings()

Loads the dialog settings for this plug-in. The default implementation first looks for a standard named file in the plug-in's read/write state area; if no such file exists, the plug-in's install directory is checked to see if one was installed with some default settings; if no file is found in either place, a new empty dialog settings is created. If a problem occurs, an empty settings is silently used.

This framework method may be overridden, although this is typically unnecessary.

loadPreferenceStore

protected void loadPreferenceStore()

Deprecated. As of Eclipse 2.0, a basic preference store exists for all plug-ins. This method now exists only for backwards compatibility. It is called as the plug-in's preference store is being initialized. The plug-ins preferences are loaded from the file regardless of what this method does.

Loads the preference store for this plug-in. The default implementation looks for a standard named file in the plug-in's read/write state area. If no file is found or a problem occurs, a new empty preference store is silently created.

This framework method may be overridden, although this is typically unnecessary.

refreshPluginActions

protected void refreshPluginActions()

Refreshes the actions for the plugin. This method is called from startup.

This framework method may be overridden, although this is typically unnecessary.

saveDialogSettings

protected void saveDialogSettings()

Saves this plug-in's dialog settings. Any problems which arise are silently ignored.

savePreferenceStore

protected void savePreferenceStore()

Deprecated. As of Eclipse 2.0, preferences exist for all plug-ins. The equivalent of this method is Plugin.savePluginPreferences. This method now calls savePluginPreferences, and exists only for backwards compatibility.

Saves this plug-in's preference store. Any problems which arise are silently ignored.

See Also:

Plugin.savePluginPreferences()

startup

public void startup()
             throws CoreException

The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method refreshes the plug-in actions. Subclasses may extend this method, but must send super first.

WARNING: Plug-ins may not be started in the UI thread. The startup() method should not assume that its code runs in the UI thread, otherwise SWT thread exceptions may occur on startup.

Overrides:

startup in class Plugin

Throws:

CoreException - if this plug-in did not start up properly

shutdown

public void shutdown()
              throws CoreException

The AbstractUIPlugin implementation of this Plugin method saves this plug-in's preference and dialog stores and shuts down its image registry (if they are in use). Subclasses may extend this method, but must send super first.

Overrides:

shutdown in class Plugin

Throws:

CoreException - if this method fails to shut down this plug-in