Runtime application model
The platform runtime provides an application container for controlling and executing
applications. The runtime application container implements the Application Admin
service specification included in the OSGi R4 specification. The application container is
responsible for discovering all available applications and registering an
ApplicationDescriptor OSGi service for each application that is available. An ApplicationDescriptor
service can be used to launch an application. When an application is launched an
ApplicationHandle OSGi service is registered to represent the instance of the running
application. An ApplicationHandle service can be used to shutdown an application.
See the
org.osgi.service.application
package and the
OSGi R4.1 specification for more
information.
The default application
A given Eclipse configuration may contain many products and applications. An Eclipse configuration
specifies a default application which is launched by the application container as soon as the platform
runtime is up and running. The default application can be specified by one of the following
configuration options
-
eclipse.product -
identifies the product to launch the platform runtime with. A product supplies branding information
(window icons, title bar text etc.) as well as defining the default application to run.
-
eclipse.application -
identifies the application to launch the platform runtime with. This option overrides default application
defined by the product.
Defining an application
Plug-ins may define their own applications using the
org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications
extension. In this extension, the plug-in defines the name and ID of the application, as well a class that implements
the application. The class which implements the application is used to launch and shutdown application instances.
