Handlers

org.eclipse.ui.handlers

3.1

The handlers extension point is an elaboration of the experimental handlerSubmission element defined in Eclipse 3.0. A handler is the behaviour of a command at a particular point in time. A command can have zero or more handlers associated with it. At any one point in time, however, a command will either have no active handler or one active handler. The active handler is the one which is currently responsible for carrying out the behaviour of the command. This is very similar to the concept of an action handler and a retargettable action.

The handlers extension point allows a plug-in developer to specify a handler that should become active and/or enabled under certain conditions. If a handler is inactive, then no command will delegate its behaviour to the handler. If a handler is disabled, then the handler will not be asked to execute; execution of the handler is blocked. The conditions are defined using the expression language facility added during 3.0. They are expressed using activeWhen and enabledWhen clauses.

The workbench provides some variables that these expressions can rely on. The variables supported are: the active contexts, the active editor, the active part and the current selection. While not supported in this initial design, it is easy to see how it would be possible to add other variables or even allow plug-in developers to contribute other variables.

A handler that specifies no conditions is a default handler. A default handler is only active if no other handler has all of its conditions satisfied. If two handlers still have conditions that are satisfied, then the conditions are compared. The idea is to select a handler whose condition is more specific or more local. To do this, the variables referred to by the condition are looked at. The condition that refers to the most specific variable "wins". The order of specificity (from least specific to most specific) is defined in org.eclipse.ui.ISources.

If this still doesn't resolve the conflict, then no handler is active. If a particular tracing option is turned on, then this leads to a message in the log. A conflict can also occur if there are two default handlers. It is the responsibility of the plug-in developers and integration testers to ensure that this does not happen. These conditions are used to avoid unnecessary plug-in loading. These handler definitions are wrapped in a proxy. For a proxy to load its underlying handler, two things must happen: the conditions for the proxy must be met so that it becomes active, and the command must be asked to do something which it must delegate (e.g., execute()).

<!ELEMENT extension (handler)>

<!ATTLIST extension

point CDATA #REQUIRED

id    CDATA #IMPLIED

name  CDATA #IMPLIED>


<!ELEMENT handler (activeWhen? | class? | enabledWhen?)>

<!ATTLIST handler

commandId CDATA #REQUIRED

class     CDATA #IMPLIED>


<!ELEMENT activeWhen (not | and | or | instanceof | test | systemTest | equals | count | with | resolve | adapt | iterate)>



<!ELEMENT enabledWhen (not | and | or | instanceof | test | systemTest | equals | count | with | resolve | adapt | iterate)>



<!ELEMENT class (parameter)>

<!ATTLIST class

class CDATA #IMPLIED>


<!ELEMENT parameter EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST parameter

name  CDATA #REQUIRED

value CDATA #REQUIRED>


<!ELEMENT enablement (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

A generic root element. The element can be used inside an extension point to define its enablement expression. The children of an enablement expression are combined using the and operator.



<!ELEMENT not (not | and | or | instanceof | test | systemTest | equals | count | with | resolve | adapt | iterate)>

This element represent a NOT operation on the result of evaluating it's sub-element expression.



<!ELEMENT and (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

This element represent an AND operation on the result of evaluating all it's sub-elements expressions.



<!ELEMENT or (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

This element represent an OR operation on the result of evaluating all it's sub-element expressions.



<!ELEMENT instanceof EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST instanceof

value CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to perform an instanceof check of the object in focus. The expression returns EvaluationResult.TRUE if the object's type is a sub type of the type specified by the attribute value. Otherwise EvaluationResult.FALSE is returned.



<!ELEMENT test EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST test

property CDATA #REQUIRED

args     CDATA #IMPLIED

value    CDATA #IMPLIED>

This element is used to evaluate the property state of the object in focus. The set of testable properties can be extended using the propery tester extension point. The test expression returns EvaluationResult.NOT_LOADED if teh property tester doing the actual testing isn't loaded yet.



<!ELEMENT systemTest EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST systemTest

property CDATA #REQUIRED

value    CDATA #REQUIRED>

Tests a system property by calling the System.getProperty method and compares the result with the value specified through the value attribute.



<!ELEMENT equals EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST equals

value CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to perform an equals check of the object in focus. The expression returns EvaluationResult.TRUE if the object is equal to the value provided by the attribute value. Otherwise EvaluationResult.FALSE is returned.



<!ELEMENT count EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST count

value CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to test the number of elements in a collection.



<!ELEMENT with (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

<!ATTLIST with

variable CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element changes the object to be inspected for all its child element to the object referneced by the given variable. If the variable can not be resolved then the expression will throw a ExpressionException when evaluating it. The children of a with expression are combined using the and operator.



<!ELEMENT resolve (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

<!ATTLIST resolve

variable CDATA #REQUIRED

args     CDATA #IMPLIED>

This element changes the object to be inspected for all its child element to the object referneced by the given variable. If the variable can not be resolved then the expression will throw a ExpressionException when evaluating it. The children of a with expression are combined using the and operator.



<!ELEMENT adapt (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

<!ATTLIST adapt

type CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to adapt the object in focus to the type specified by the attribute type. The expression returns not loaded if either the adapter or the type referenced isn't loaded yet. It throws a ExpressionException during evaluation if the type name doesn't exist at all. The children of an adapt expression are combined using the and operator.



<!ELEMENT iterate (not , and , or , instanceof , test , systemTest , equals , count , with , resolve , adapt , iterate)*>

<!ATTLIST iterate

operator (or|and) >

This element is used to iterate over a variable that is of type java.util.Collection. If the object in focus is not of type java.util.Collection then an ExpressionException will be thrown while evaluating the expression.



<extension point=

"org.eclipse.ui.handlers"

>

<handler commandId=

"commandId"

class=

"org.eclipse.compare.Command"

>

<activeWhen>

<with variable=

"selection"

>

<count value=

"1"

/>

<iterate operator=

"and"

>

<adapt type=

"IResource"

/>

</iterate>

</with>

</activeWhen>

</handler>

</extension>

To further avoid plug-in loading, it is possible to specify when the handler is enabled. If the proxy has not yet loaded the handler, then only the expressions syntax is used to decide if the handler is enabled. If the proxy has loaded the handler, then the expressions syntax is consulted first. If the expressions syntax evaluates to true, then the handler is asked if it is enabled. (This is a short-circuit Boolean "and" operation between the expressions syntax and the handler's enabled state.)

<extension point=

"org.eclipse.ui.handlers"

>

<handler commandId=

"commandId"

class=

"org.eclipse.Handler"

>

<enabledWhen>

<with variable=

"context"

>

<property id=

"id"

value=

"debugging"

/>

</with>

</enabledWhen>

</handler>

</extension>

All handlers implement org.eclipse.core.commands.IHandler. Within the workbench, it is possible to activate and deactivate handlers using the org.eclipse.ui.handlers.IHandlerService interface. This interface can be retrieved from supporting workbench objects, such as IWorkbench itself. To retrieve the service, you would make a call like IWorkbench.getAdapter(IHandlerService.class).

It is also possible to activate and deactive handlers using legacy code in the workbench. This can be done through the legacy mechanism shown below. This mechanism is useful to clients who are using actions to contribute to menus or toolbars.

 IWorkbenchPartSite mySite;
 IAction myAction;
 
 myAction.setActionDefinitionId(commandId);
 IKeyBindingService service = mySite.getKeyBindingService();
 service.registerAction(myAction);