The initial contribution set for an editor is defined by another extension point (org.eclipse.ui.editors). One set of actions is created and shared by all instances of the same editor type. When invoked, these action act upon the active editor. This extension point follows the same pattern. Each action extension is created and shared by all instances of the same editor type. The action class is required to implement org.eclipse.ui.IEditorActionDelegate. The active editor is passed to the delegate by invoking IEditorActionDelegate.setActiveEditor.
An action's enablement and/or visibility can be defined using the elements enablement and visibility respectively. These two elements contain a boolean expression that is evaluated to determine the enablement and/or visibility.
The syntax is the same for the enablement and visibility elements. Both contain only one boolean expression sub-element. In the simplest case, this will be an objectClass, objectState, pluginState, or systemProperty element. In the more complex case, the and, or, and not elements can be combined to form a boolean expression. Both the and, and or elements must contain 2 sub-elements. The not element must contain only 1 sub-element.
<!ELEMENT extension (editorContribution+)>
<!ATTLIST extension
point CDATA #REQUIRED
id CDATA #IMPLIED
name CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ELEMENT editorContribution (menu* , action*)>
<!ATTLIST editorContribution
id CDATA #REQUIRED
targetID CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to define a group of editor actions and/or menus.
<!ELEMENT action (selection* | enablement?)>
<!ATTLIST action
id CDATA #REQUIRED
label CDATA #REQUIRED
accelerator CDATA #IMPLIED
definitionId CDATA #IMPLIED
menubarPath CDATA #IMPLIED
toolbarPath CDATA #IMPLIED
icon CDATA #IMPLIED
disabledIcon CDATA #IMPLIED
hoverIcon CDATA #IMPLIED
tooltip CDATA #IMPLIED
helpContextId CDATA #IMPLIED
style (push|radio|toggle) "push"
state (true | false)
class CDATA #REQUIRED
enablesFor CDATA #IMPLIED
actionID CDATA #IMPLIED>
This element defines an action that the user can invoke in the UI.
push | - as a regular menu item or tool item. | |
radio | - as a radio style menu item or tool item. Actions with the radio style within the same menu or toolbar group behave as a radio set. The initial value is specified by the state attribute. | |
toggle | - as a checked style menu item or as a toggle tool item. The initial value is specified by the state attribute. |
! | - 0 items selected | |
? | - 0 or 1 items selected | |
+ | - 1 or more items selected | |
multiple, 2+ | - 2 or more items selected | |
n | - a precise number of items selected.a precise number of items selected. For example: enablesFor=" 4" enables the action only when 4 items are selected | |
* | - any number of items selected |
<!ELEMENT menu (separator+ , groupMarker*)>
<!ATTLIST menu
id CDATA #REQUIRED
label CDATA #REQUIRED
path CDATA #IMPLIED>
This element is used to defined a new menu.
<!ELEMENT separator EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST separator
name CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to create a menu separator in the new menu.
<!ELEMENT groupMarker EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST groupMarker
name CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to create a named group in the new menu. It has no visual representation in the new menu, unlike the separator element.
<!ELEMENT selection EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST selection
class CDATA #REQUIRED
name CDATA #IMPLIED>
This element is used to help determine the action enablement based on the current selection. Ignored if the enablement element is specified.
<!ELEMENT enablement (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)>
This element is used to define the enablement for the extension.
<!ELEMENT visibility (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)>
This element is used to define the visibility for the extension.
<!ELEMENT and (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)>
This element represent a boolean AND operation on the result of evaluating its two sub-element expressions.
<!ELEMENT or (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)>
This element represent a boolean OR operation on the result of evaluating its two sub-element expressions.
<!ELEMENT not (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)>
This element represent a boolean NOT operation on the result of evaluating its sub-element expressions.
<!ELEMENT objectClass EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST objectClass
name CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to evaluate the class or interface of each object in the current selection. If each object in the selection implements the specified class or interface, the expression is evaluated as true.
<!ELEMENT objectState EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST objectState
name CDATA #REQUIRED
value CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to evaluate the attribute state of each object in the current selection. If each object in the selection has the specified attribute state, the expression is evaluated as true. To evaluate this type of expression, each object in the selection must implement, or adapt to, org.eclipse.ui.IActionFilter interface.
<!ELEMENT pluginState EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST pluginState
id CDATA #REQUIRED
value (installed|activated) "installed">
This element is used to evaluate the state of a plug-in. The state of the plug-in may be one of the following: installed (equivalent to the OSGi concept of "resolved") or activated (equivalent to the OSGi concept of "active").
<!ELEMENT systemProperty EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST systemProperty
name CDATA #REQUIRED
value CDATA #REQUIRED>
This element is used to evaluate the state of some system property. The property value is retrieved from the java.lang.System.
<extension point=
"org.eclipse.ui.editorActions"
>
<editorContribution id=
"com.xyz.xyzContribution"
targetID=
"com.ibm.XMLEditor"
>
<menu id=
"XYZ"
label=
"&XYZ Menu"
>
<separator name=
"group1"
/>
</menu>
<action id=
"com.xyz.runXYZ"
label=
"&Run XYZ Tool"
menubarPath=
"XYZ/group1"
toolbarPath=
"Normal/additions"
style=
"toggle"
state=
"true"
icon=
"icons/runXYZ.gif"
tooltip=
"Run XYZ Tool"
helpContextId=
"com.xyz.run_action_context"
class=
"com.xyz.actions.RunXYZ"
>
<selection class=
"org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile"
name=
"*.java"
/>
</action>
</editorContribution>
</extension>
In the example above, the specified action will appear as a check box item in the new top-level menu named "XYZ Menu", and as a toggle button in the toolbar. The action is enabled if the selection contains only Java file resources.
The following is an other example of an editor action extension:
<extension point=
"org.eclipse.ui.editorActions"
>
<editorContribution id=
"com.xyz.xyz2Contribution"
targetID=
"com.ibm.XMLEditor"
>
<menu id=
"XYZ2"
label=
"&XYZ2 Menu"
path=
"edit/additions"
>
<separator name=
"group1"
/>
</menu>
<action id=
"com.xyz.runXYZ2"
label=
"&Run XYZ2 Tool"
menubarPath=
"edit/XYZ2/group1"
style=
"push"
icon=
"icons/runXYZ2.gif"
tooltip=
"Run XYZ2 Tool"
helpContextId=
"com.xyz.run_action_context2"
class=
"com.xyz.actions.RunXYZ2"
>
<enablement>
<and>
<objectClass name=
"org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile"
/>
<not>
<objectState name=
"extension"
value=
"java"
/>
</not>
</and>
</enablement>
</action>
</editorContribution>
</extension>
In the example above, the specified action will appear as a menu item in the sub-menu named "XYZ2 Menu" in the top level "Edit" menu. The action is enabled if the selection contains no Java file resources.
This extension point can be used to contribute actions into menus previously created by the target editor. In addition, menus and actions can be contributed to the Workbench window. The identifiers for actions and major groups within the Workbench window are defined in org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchActionConstants. These should be used as a reference point for the addition of new actions. Top level menus are created by using the following values for the path attribute:
Actions and menus added into these paths will only be shown while the associated editor is active. When the editor is closed, menus and actions will be removed.
The enablement criteria for an action extension is initially defined by enablesFor, and also either selection or enablement. However, once the action delegate has been instantiated, it may control the action enable state directly within its selectionChanged method.
Action and menu labels may contain special characters that encode mnemonics using the following rules:
The selection and enablement elements are mutually exclusive. The enablement element can replace the selection element using the sub-elements objectClass and objectState. For example, the following:
can be expressed using:<selection class=
"org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile"
name=
"*.java"
>
</selection>
<enablement>
<and>
<objectClass name=
"org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile"
/>
<objectState name=
"extension"
value=
"java"
/>
</and>
</enablement>
Copyright (c) 2000, 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