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Base extension point availability question? [message #650182]

Sat, 22 January 2011 10:18

Eclipse User

Greetings All,

I'm working on learning the eclipse rcp and I'm wondering about something. I don't seem to be able to add any of the base extension points in the manifest view "extension points" that should be available in the jars that the rcp loads as dependencies. < Wow, I hope that makes sense > Nor can I figure out how to export any of the base packages on the Runtime tab.

So, my question is, do I explicitly have to make the extension points in the base packages available through the Extension Points tab or the Runtime tab export feature for future developers who may wish to extend from base extension points in my app? All the tutorials say that unless I explicitly expose my extension points that OSGi will not make them available for extension. They will be invisible.

Is it implicit that the base extension points provided by the rcp runtime dependencies are available to future extension writers?

Are the only extension points that need to be explicitly exposed those that I create myself?

Basically, if I write an application and someone wants to improve it by adding a whole new perspective to the workbench, are those extension points available to them without having to modify any of the base code?

Thanks,
Mark

Re: Base extension point availability question? [message #650184 is a reply to message #650182]

Sat, 22 January 2011 11:06

Eclipse User

d.m.jackson wrote on Sat, 22 January 2011 17:18

I don't seem to be able to add any of the base extension points in the manifest view "extension points" that should be available in the jars that the rcp loads as dependencies. < Wow, I hope that makes sense > Nor can I figure out how to export any of the base packages on the Runtime tab.

Hello Mark

This makes sense and seems to be related to your target platform. I am not sure exactly what plugins are missing from the target platform.

A good RCP tutorial can be found here. You can find also more Eclipse tutorials on that web site.

Quote:

So, my question is, do I explicitly have to make the extension points in the base packages available through the Extension Points tab or the Runtime tab export feature for future developers who may wish to extend from base extension points in my app?

Yes. But only the ones created in your application. The other visible extension are the one defined in the plug-ins of your product definition (feature or product based) regardless of their initial contributor (rcp runtime or third party plug-in).

Quote:

Is it implicit that the base extension points provided by the rcp runtime dependencies are available to future extension writers?

Yes; but the plugins have to be present in your product definition.

Quote:

Are the only extension points that need to be explicitly exposed those that I create myself?

Yes.

Quote:

Basically, if I write an application and someone wants to improve it by adding a whole new perspective to the workbench, are those extension points available to them without having to modify any of the base code?

Yes.

HTH
Catalin

Re: Base extension point availability question? [message #650206 is a reply to message #650184]

Sat, 22 January 2011 21:35

Eclipse User

Thank you Catalin. I was wondering about this because basically I want all aspects of my application to remain open to extension. I tried to add the extension points : org.eclipse.ui.actionSets, org.eclipse.ui.commands, and a few others that are part of the base rcp packages because I didn't see them listed as available on the "Extension Points" tab of my applications manifest.mf editor view. I just wanted to make sure that those extension points would be available for future developments without having to go back and mess with the original code to expose them nor have future developers have to add redundant packages to use them. It makes sense that anything in the base runtime jars should be available.

Thanks for the link also, I've actually been going over these tutorials for a little while and have found them quite useful.

Mark

Re: Base extension point availability question? [message #650334 is a reply to message #650182]

Mon, 24 January 2011 07:38

Eclipse User

On 01/22/2011 10:18 AM, Mark wrote:
> Are the only extension points that need to be explicitly exposed those
> that I create myself?

Correct.

If someone is extending your RCP app and wanted to use
org.eclipse.ui.menus, for example, all they'd have to do in their plugin
is require org.eclipse.ui (which defines that extension point).

To contribute to your extension points, they'd have to require your
bundle that defines them.

PW

--
Paul Webster
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform_Command_Framework
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Command_Core_Expressions
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform_Expression_Framework
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Menu_Contributions
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Menus_Extension_Mapping
http://help.eclipse.org/galileo/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse .platform.doc.isv/guide/workbench.htm

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