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Platform Plug-in Developer Guide Reference Extension Points Reference

Perspective Extensions

Identifier:

org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions

Description:

This extension point is used to extend perspectives registered by other plug-ins. A perspective defines the initial contents of the window action bars (menu and toolbar) and the initial set of views and their layout within a workbench page. Other plug-ins may contribute actions or views to the perspective which appear when the perspective is selected. Optional additions by other plug-ins are appended to the initial definition.

Configuration Markup:

<!ELEMENT extension ( perspectiveExtension*)>

<!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

<!ATTLIST perspectiveExtension

targetID IDREF #REQUIRED

targetID - the unique identifier of the perspective (as specified in the registry) into which the contribution is made. If the value is set to "*" the extension is applied to all perspectives.

<!ELEMENT actionSet EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST actionSet

id IDREF #REQUIRED

id - the unique identifier of the action set which will be added to the perspective.

<!ELEMENT viewShortcut EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST viewShortcut

id IDREF #REQUIRED

id - the unique identifier of the view which will be added to the perspective's "Show View" submenu of the "Window" menu.

<!ELEMENT perspectiveShortcut EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST perspectiveShortcut

id IDREF #REQUIRED

id - the unique identifier of the perspective which will be added to the perspective's "Open Perspective" submenu of the "Window" menu.

<!ELEMENT newWizardShortcut EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST newWizardShortcut

id IDREF #REQUIRED

id - the unique identifier of the new wizard which will be added to the perspective's "New" submenu of the "File" menu.

<!ELEMENT showInPart EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST showInPart

id IDREF #IMPLIED

id - the unique identifier of the view which will be added to the perspective's "Show In..." prompter in the Navigate menu.

<!ELEMENT view EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST view

id IDREF #REQUIRED

relative IDREF #IMPLIED

ratio CDATA #IMPLIED

visible (true | false)

closeable (true | false)

moveable (true | false)

standalone (true | false)

showTitle (true | false)

minimized (true | false) "false"

id - the unique identifier of the view which will be added to the perspective layout.
relative - the unique identifier of a view which already exists in the perspective. This will be used as a reference point for placement of the view. The relationship between these two views is defined by relationship. Ignored if relationship is "fast".
relationship - specifies the relationship between id and relative. The following values are supported:
ratio - the percentage of area within the relative view which will be donated to the view extension. If the view extension is a fast view, the ratio is the percentage of the workbench the fast view will cover when active. This must be defined as a floating point value and lie between 0.05 and 0.95.
visible - whether the view is initially visible when the perspective is opened. This attribute should have a value of "true" or "false" if used. If this attribute is not used, the view will be initially visible by default.
closeable - whether the view is closeable in the target perspective. This attribute should have a value of "true" or "false" if used. If this attribute is not used, the view will be closeable, unless the perspective itself is marked as fixed.
moveable - whether the view is moveable. A non-moveable view cannot be moved either within the same folder, or moved between folders in the perspective. This attribute should have a value of "true" or "false" if used. If this attribute is not used, the view will be moveable, unless the perspective itself is marked as fixed.
standalone - whether the view is a standalone view. A standalone view cannot be docked together with others in the same folder. This attribute should have a value of "true" or "false" if used. This attribute is ignored if the relationship attribute is "fast" or "stacked". If this attribute is not used, the view will be a regular view, not a standalone view (default is "false").
showTitle - whether the view's title is shown. This attribute should have a value of "true" or "false" if used. This attribute only applies to standalone views. If this attribute is not used, the view's title will be shown (default is "true").
minimized - If the perspective extension will result in a new view stack being created (i.e. the 'relationship' attribute is one of left, right, top or bottom) this field determines the new stack's initial display state.

<!ELEMENT hiddenMenuItem EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST hiddenMenuItem

id CDATA #REQUIRED

id - The unique identifier of the Command which is to be removed from the menu. WARNING: This is considered to be a 'Product level' extension and should not be used in consumable plugins without great care.

<!ELEMENT hiddenToolBarItem EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST hiddenToolBarItem

id CDATA #REQUIRED

id - The unique identifier of the Command which is to be removed from thetoolbar. WARNING: This is considered to be a 'Product level' extension and should not be used in consumable plugins without great care.

Examples:

The following is an example of a perspective extension (note the subelements and the way attributes are used):


    <extension point=
"org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions"
> 
        <perspectiveExtension 
            targetID=
"org.eclipse.ui.resourcePerspective"
> 
            <actionSet id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavaActionSet"
/> 
            <viewShortcut id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.PackageExplorer"
/> 
            <newWizardShortcut id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.wizards.NewProjectCreationWizard"
/> 
            <perspectiveShortcut id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavaPerspective"
/> 
            <view id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.PackageExplorer"
 
                relative=
"org.eclipse.ui.views.ResourceNavigator"
 
                relationship=
"stack"
/> 
            <view id=
"org.eclipse.jdt.ui.TypeHierarchy"
 
                relative=
"org.eclipse.ui.views.ResourceNavigator"
 
                relationship=
"left"
 
                ratio=
"0.50"
/> 
        </perspectiveExtension> 
    </extension>

In the example above, an action set, view shortcut, new wizard shortcut, and perspective shortcut are contributed to the initial contents of the Resource Perspective. In addition, the Package Explorer view is stacked on the Resource Navigator and the Type Hierarchy View is added beside the Resource Navigator.

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