Plugin.xml

jUCMNav's Extensions (of Extension Points)

• The extension mechanism in Eclipse is very nice. Using a simple xml file (plugin.xml), one registers itself as an extension of existing extension points.
• Eclipse has an extension point for editors
  • org.eclipse.ui.editors
  • Defines the editor class which must implement org.eclipse.ui.IEditorPart (seg.jUCMNav.editors.UCMNavMultiPageEditor) and to which extensions it is linked to.
• Eclipse has extension points for items in the toolbar
  • One of them: org.eclipse.ui.editorActions
  • Adds items to the toolbar that are only visible when a particular editor is loaded.
• Eclipse has extension points for views/perspectives
  • Some of them: org.eclipse.ui.views, org.eclipse.ui.perspectives, org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions
  • Registers views/perspectives to be opened using the Show-View/Open-Perspective operations.
• Eclipse has extension points for help
  • One of them: org.eclipse.help.toc
  • Registers a certain xml file as containing the structure for a table of contents
• Eclipse has extension points for wizards
  • Some of them: org.eclipse.ui.exportWizards, org.eclipse.ui.newWizards
  • For use with File-Export, File-New
• Many extension points exist. Using the (sometimes hard to comprehend) interfaces, one knows which classes to extend, registers them here, and, on reload, the new code is integrated with the platform.

jUCMNav's Extension Points

• As of writing, jUCMNav offers no extension points. Therefore, one cannot extend the codebase without modifying the code. High level tasks like creating another plugin that adds new views to jUCMNav is possible though.
• There are plans of creating an extension point for jUCMNav's File-Export. Given an instance of the metamodel, save it in another format. Could also be used to save the rendered image in other formats.

Alternatives

• As far as I know, once you have one extension registered (like the editor), you can bypass the plugin.xml and register yourself programatically for anything.

-- Jason Kealey - 22 Jun 2005