Runtime refactoring

In order to make the Eclipse runtime more flexible and allow independent use of runtime components, the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in has been split into several plug-ins:

• org.eclipse.equinox.common - common code used by more than one piece of the former runtime plug-in (i.e. IPath, IStatus, IProgressMonitor).
• org.eclipse.equinox.registry - Extension registry
• org.eclipse.equinox.preferences - Preferences mechanism
• org.eclipse.core.jobs - Jobs mechanism
• org.eclipse.core.contenttype - Content mechanism
• org.eclipse.equinox.supplement - A supplemental "plug-in" that is used to support running without OSGi.

New APIs were added to facilitate control of the split runtime pieces.

The runtime refactoring should be transparent to other plug-ins. For more details, see the Eclipse 3.2 migration guide.

Common navigator

Tabbed properties framework

See the article The Eclipse Tabbed Properties View for details.

File system API

A new plug-in, org.eclipse.core.filesystem, introduces a new generic API for interacting with file systems. The platform has been migrated to use this file system API rather than java.io APIs. This means resources can be created in arbitrary backing file systems, and plug-ins can provide support new kinds of file systems.

Support has been added to the project and linked resource wizards for creating resources that are linked to other file systems. Plug-ins that define alternate file systems can hook into this wizard support by using the org.eclipse.ui.ide.filesystemSupport extension point.

Categorization added to Import and Export

The org.eclipse.ui.importWizards and org.eclipse.ui.exportWizards extension points now support categorization.

Tooltips for annotations in Text editors

Annotation navigation in Text editors

JFace field assistance

JFace introduces new support for assisting the user in completing fields inside dialogs and forms. The org.eclipse.jface.fieldassist package provides classes that let you decorate arbitrary controls with images and corresponding hover text. These can be used for purposes such as marking required fields in a dialog, showing field-based error conditions, or showing content-assist prompts. The package also allows you to install content proposals on a control, including a pop-up dialog with content proposals, secondary pop-ups for further information, and options for invoking proposals explicitly or in an automatic (type-ahead) style.

JFace TreeViewer enhancements

AbstractTreeViewer now supports multiple equal elements in the tree, each with a different parent chain. This support requires that clients enable the element map by calling setUseHashLookup(true).

TreeViewer now supports SWT.VIRTUAL trees. There is a corresponding lazy content provider ILazyTreeContentProvider that only returns contents as they are needed.

Support for dynamic Help content

Help search enhancements

User assistance indexing and searching has been enhanced in various ways. Additional search participants can be registered via extension point that can add content to the Lucene index. Help now contributes an XHTML search participant that can index dynamic help documents authored in XHMTL (see above). In addition, documents that were previously not in the index will now appear (for example, cheat sheets and Welcome pages). Search hits can now have different icons and the 'open' action can be delegated to the search engine.

Problems can be grouped

Problems in the Problems view can now be grouped. There are default groupings by severity and problem type, and additional groups can be defined via the org.eclipse.ui.ide.markerSupport extension point.

Improved help in dialogs

Embed command links in User Assistance content

Support for launching commands from cheat sheets

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cheatsheet title="Example of Commands in a Cheat Sheet">
  <intro>

    <description>A cheat sheet shows the 
			package explorer</description>
  </intro>
  <item title="Show Search View">
     <description>This is a step with a command 
		which shows the search view.</description>

     <command serialization=
		"org.eclipse.search.ui.views.SearchView"/>  
  </item>
  <item title="Step 2">
    <description>This is a step with a command and 
		parameters, shows package explorer.</description>

     <command serialization="org.eclipse.ui.views.showView(
		org.eclipse.ui.views.showView.viewId=
		org.eclipse.jdt.ui.PackageExplorer)"/> 
     <onCompletion>
         Command example completed.
     </onCompletion>
  </item>
</cheatsheet>

Composite cheat sheets

Composite cheat sheets have a tree which shows the tasks and their status. The right hand/lower panel contains the individual tasks.

The content of a composite cheat sheets is defined in an XML file. The content file can specify what dependencies exist between tasks so that a task can only be started after any prerequisite tasks have been completed.

Help keyword index

XHTML help docs conversion tool

This function can be invoked via PDE Tools > Convert Help files to XHTML from the context menu of plug-in projects.

Universal welcome

A Welcome preference page provided by Universal Welcome opens up Welcome customization to the end users, and can be included in any product that wants to offer it. You can read more about this in the Universal Welcome specification.

Support for configuration and themes in Welcome

Themes represent named collections of CSS files, properties, and images that collectively define the look of the Welcome content. Universal Welcome takes advantage of this support by providing theme selection capability and two concrete themes in 3.2: 'Circles' and 'Purple Mesh'.

Namespace support for the Ant extension points

The org.eclipse.ant.core antTasks and antTypes extension points now allow for the designation of a URI that the definition should live in. See bug 133190 for full details of all the changes.

Team support for logical model integration

• Consult models to ensure all required resources are included in a Team operation.
• Use model semantics to aid in resolving merge conflicts.
• Allow models to participate in the display of resources during Team Operations

Sort indicator in tables and trees

Table and Tree now support a sort direction indicator in the header of the column.

SWT snippets showing sorting by column (simple) and sorting by column (virtual table).

Reorderable columns in trees

In Eclipse 3.1, we added the ability to reorder columns in a Table. That support has now been added to Tree.

The display order of columns in a tree can be changed by dragging the column header, or it can be set programmatically.

Example snippet.

Improved XP theme support

On Windows XP, SWT now shows the textured background in tab folders. The groups, labels, check boxes, etc. are all transparent to this background. Also, custom widgets, such as StyledText, now show the correct border for the prevailing Windows XP theme.

See the SWT FAQ for instructions on how to run with a Windows XP skin.

Animated GIFs

Animated GIF images can be saved to file.

For an example see the SWT snippet.

Desktop appearance notification

When appearance settings such as theme, font, or default colors are changed for the desktop, an SWT.Settings event is issued for the Display.

Dispose notification

Previously, when an SWT.Dispose event was received for a parent composite, all the children were disposed and therefore could not be referenced. For 3.2, the Dispose event is received before the children have been released in the OS.

Tool tips for columns

Tooltip text can be set on a table or tree column header using TableColumn/TreeColumn.setTooltipText(String).

Vertical CoolBar

A vertical coolbar can be created by using the SWT.VERTICAL style.

OpenGL support

You can now use OpenGL in SWT applications. The OpenGL interface works with third-party OpenGL libraries such as LWJGL.

For examples, see the SWT snippets

• org.eclipse.opengl snippet
• LWJGL snippet

Virtual tree

Tree now supports the SWT.VIRTUAL style. This allows you to create trees with large amounts of data quickly. When TreeItems are needed, they are created on-demand.

For an example see the SWT snippet.

Buttons with image and text

Buttons can now show an image as well as text. This feature is supported on Windows XP, Mac OS X, and GTK.

HIView on Mac OS X

SWT now makes use of HIView on Mac OS X. This resolves many clipping and sizing issues.

Embedding objects in text

Using TextLayout and StyledText, it is now possible to embed objects such as images or widgets inside text. Glyph metrics such as ascent, descent and width can be specified. Objects wrap with the text.

For examples, see the following snippets:

• Embedding objects in TextLayout
• Embedding objects in StyledText

Indent, align and justify text

TextLayout and StyledText now support indenting, justifying, and aligning text.

For examples, see the following snippets:

• Indenting and aligning in TextLayout
• Indenting and aligning in StyledText

Text baseline rise

Using TextLayout and TextStyle, it is now possible to specify the baseline rise for a range of text.

For an example see the SWT snippet.

HSB color support

A color can be created by specifying the hue, saturation, and brightness. In addition, for a given color, the hue, saturation, and brightness values can be queried.

For an example, see the SWT snippet

Background image

A background image can be set into a control. In addition, the background can be inherited by child widgets such as labels.

For an example, see the SWT snippet

Native image loading

The constructor Image(Device device, String filename) will now load images using native operating system calls. This has improved performance of image loading and increased the maximum size of image that can be loaded.

Dragging text

If the SWT.DragDetect event is hooked on Text or StyledText, the selection will not be cleared when the user drags from within a selected range of text. This makes it possible to support dragging from the Text and StyledText widgets.

For an example, see this SWT snippet

New ExpandBar widget

The ExpandBar widget allows the user to show and hide collections of widgets by clicking on a header. The ExpandBar contains multiple items which each may have an image and title in the header.

For an example, see this SWT snippet.

Bullets in StyledText

StyledText can now show lists formatted in a variety of styles, including bullets, numbered, upper case or lower case letters, and custom-defined styles.

For an example, see this SWT snippet.

Custom draw Tree

The Tree widget now supports custom draw for individual cells. Applications can enhance the native look and feel of the tree by custom rendering of the data. The application has control over row height so multiple lines of text can be drawn. In addition, it can present multiple images in the same cell, change font or color multiple times, and change the way selections are drawn.

For examples, see the following snippets:

• Images on right side of TreeItem
• Show results as a bar chart in Tree
• Custom gradient selection for Tree
• Multiple lines in a TreeItem

Custom draw Table

The Table widget now supports custom draw for individual cells. While still maintaining the native look and feel of the table, users can customize how cells are drawn to display data in a form other than text with an image, to show multiple lines of text in one cell, to change font and color multiple times within the same cell, to override the native selection drawing, etc.

For examples, see the following snippets:

• Images on right side of TableItem
• Show results as a bar chart in Table
• Custom gradient selection for Table
• Multiple lines in a TableItem

Drag over effects for Table and Tree

The Table and Tree widgets now provide visual feedback of what is being dragged.

New Tooltip class

The new ToolTip class can be used to display tooltips that are not directly tied to a Control. These tooltips can be placed anywhere, and can have either the platform default appearance or a BALLOON appearance as shown below.