Eclipse Plug-in Developer Guide
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Defining a minimal intro configuration

The first stage in creating a new intro configuration is to add the necessary extension points and create a minimal amount of content. This stage is often the hardest. Below are the steps required to create a minimal intro configuration and have it show up in a product.

Create a plugin project and add extension points

Create an new plugin project "org.eclipse.intro.minimal" which has a dependency on org.eclipse.ui.intro. In the plugin manifest editor add the extension org.eclipse.ui.intro. Edit plugin.xml until it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?eclipse version="3.2"?>
<plugin>
    <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ui.intro">
      <intro
            class="org.eclipse.ui.intro.config.CustomizableIntroPart"
            icon="$nl$/icons/image_obj.gif"
            id="org.eclipse.intro.minimal"
            label="Minimal Intro"/>
   </extension>
   <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ui.intro.config">
      <config
            content="$nl$/introContent.xml"
            id="org.eclipse.intro.minimal.config"
            introId="org.eclipse.intro.minimal">
         <presentation
               home-page-id="root" standby-page-id="standby">
            <implementation
                  kind="html">
            </implementation>
         </presentation>
      </config>
   </extension>
</plugin>

Create the intro config file

Create a file introcontent.xml in the plugin project org.eclipse.intro.minimal with these contents.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<introContent>
    <!-- Root page -->
    <page id="root" style="html/style.css"  style-id="page">	    
        <title style-id="intro-header">Minimal Intro</title>
        <link url="https://org.eclipse.ui.intro/switchToLaunchBar" label="Go to theWorkbench" id="workbench" />
        <link label="Link to tutorials" url="https://org.eclipse.ui.intro/showPage?id=tutorials" id="tutorials" />
    </page>
	
    <!-- Standby page -->
    <page id="standby" style="html/style.css" style-id="page">
   		 <title style-id="intro-header">Standby Page</title> 
    </page>    
    
    <!-- Tutorials page -->
	<page id="tutorials" style= "html/style.css" style-id="page">
        <title style-id="intro-header">Tutorials</title>	
        <text>This page under construction</text>
    </page>   
</introContent>

Define a product binding

In this step we need to determine the product which is being used and create an intro product binding and modify its plugin.xml file. If you are using the Eclipse SDK this will be in the plugin project org.eclipse.sdk  which can be found in the plugins directory of your Eclipse installation. The following directions assume you are using the Eclipse SDK, with slight modifications these will work equally well for an RCP or other Eclipse based product. Open plugin.xml and locate the following section:

<extension
	 point="org.eclipse.ui.intro">
      <introProductBinding
            introId="org.eclipse.ui.intro.universal"
            productId="org.eclipse.sdk.ide">
      </introProductBinding>
</extension>

Change the introId to "org.eclipse.intro.minimal" so that the extension code looks like this.

<extension
		point="org.eclipse.ui.intro">
      <introProductBinding
            introId="org.eclipse.intro.minimal"
            productId="org.eclipse.sdk.ide">
      </introProductBinding>
    </extension>

Test and Customize

Launch a new Eclipse application from your workbench.  Your intro screen may already be showing (depending on the state when Eclipse last exited). If it is not showing select Help/Minimal Intro from the workbench menu. By editing the file html/style.css you can modify the appearance of your intro. You can now extend your intro either by editing the intro.xml file or by adding config extensions.