Perspectives

Identifier:

org.eclipse.ui.perspective

Description:

This extension point is used to add perspective factories to the workbench. A perspective factory is used to define the initial layout and visible action sets for a perspective. The user can select a perspective by invoking the "Open Perspective" submenu of the "Window" menu.

Configuration Markup:

<!ELEMENT extension (perspective*)>

<!ATTLIST extension

point CDATA #REQUIRED

id CDATA #IMPLIED

name CDATA #IMPLIED>

point - a fully qualified identifier of the target extension point
id - an optional identifier of the extension instance
name - an optional name of the extension instance

<!ELEMENT perspective (description?)>

<!ATTLIST perspective

id CDATA #REQUIRED

name CDATA #REQUIRED

class CDATA #REQUIRED

icon CDATA #IMPLIED

fixed (true | false) >

id - a unique name that will be used to identify this perspective.
name - a translatable name that will be used in the workbench window menu bar to represent this perspective.
class - a fully qualified name of the class that implements org.eclipse.ui.IPerspectiveFactory interface.
icon - a relative name of the icon that will be associated with this perspective.
fixed - indicates whether the layout of the perspective is fixed. If true, then views created by the perspective factory are not closeable, and cannot be moved. The default is false.

<!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA)>

an optional subelement whose body should contain text providing a short description of the perspective.

Examples:

The following is an example of a perspective extension:


   <extension 
        point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectives"> 
        <perspective 
            id="org.eclipse.ui.resourcePerspective" 
            name="Resource" 
            class="org.eclipse.ui.internal.ResourcePerspective" 
            icon="icons/MyIcon.gif"> 
        </perspective> 
    </extension>

API Information:

The value of the class attribute must be the fully qualified name of a class that implements org.eclipse.ui.IPerspectiveFactory. The class must supply the initial layout for a perspective when asked by the workbench.

The plugin_customization.ini file is used to define the default perspective. The default perspective is the first perspective which appears when the product is launched after install. It is also used when the user opens a page or window with no specified perspective. The default perspective is defined as a property within the plugin_customization.ini, as shown below. The user may also override this perspective from the workbench perspectives preference page.


    defaultPerspectiveId = org.eclipse.ui.resourcePerspective

The perspectives which appear in the "Open Perspective" menu are shortcuts for perspective selection. This set is defined by the active perspective itself, and extensions made through the perspectiveExtensions extension point.

Supplied Implementation:

The workbench provides a "Resource Perspective". Additional perspectives may be added by plug-ins. They are selected using the "Open Perspective" submenu of the "Window" menu.

Copyright (c) 2002, 2005 IBM Corporation and others.
All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html