Eclipse Plug-in Developer Guide (Galileo) - IContentAssistant (Eclipse Platform API Specification)

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Eclipse Platform
Release 3.5

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org.eclipse.jface.text.contentassist
Interface IContentAssistant

All Known Subinterfaces:: ISubjectControlContentAssistant

All Known Implementing Classes:: ContentAssistant, SubjectControlContentAssistant

public interface IContentAssistant

An IContentAssistant provides support on interactive content completion. The content assistant is a ITextViewer add-on. Its purpose is to propose, display, and insert completions of the content of the text viewer's document at the viewer's cursor position. In addition to handle completions, a content assistant can also be requested to provide context information. Context information is shown in a tool tip like popup. As it is not always possible to determine the exact context at a given document offset, a content assistant displays the possible contexts and requests the user to choose the one whose information should be displayed.

A content assistant has a list of IContentAssistProcessor objects each of which is registered for a particular document content type. The content assistant uses the processors to react on the request of completing documents or presenting context information.

In order to provide backward compatibility for clients of IContentAssistant, extension interfaces are used to provide a means of evolution. The following extension interfaces exist:

IContentAssistantExtension since version 3.0 introducing the following functions:
- handle documents with multiple partitions
- insertion of common completion prefixes
IContentAssistantExtension2 since version 3.2 introducing the following functions:
- repeated invocation (cycling) mode
- completion listeners
- a local status line for the completion popup
- control over the behavior when no proposals are available
IContentAssistantExtension3 since version 3.2 introducing the following function:
- a key-sequence to listen for in repeated invocation mode
IContentAssistantExtension4 since version 3.4 introducing the following function:
- allows to get a handler for the given command identifier

The interface can be implemented by clients. By default, clients use ContentAssistant as the standard implementer of this interface.

See Also:: ITextViewer, IContentAssistProcessor

Field Summary

static int CONTEXT_INFO_ABOVE
          Context info will be shown above the location it has been requested for without hiding the location.

static int CONTEXT_INFO_BELOW
          Context info will be shown below the location it has been requested for without hiding the location.

static int PROPOSAL_OVERLAY
          The context info list will overlay the list of completion proposals.

static int PROPOSAL_REMOVE
          The completion proposal list will be removed before the context info list will be shown.

static int PROPOSAL_STACKED
          The context info list will be presented without hiding or overlapping the completion proposal list.

Method Summary

IContentAssistProcessor getContentAssistProcessor ( String contentType)
          Returns the content assist processor to be used for the given content type.

void install ( ITextViewer textViewer)
          Installs content assist support on the given text viewer.

String showContextInformation ()
          Shows context information for the content at the viewer's cursor position.

String showPossibleCompletions ()
          Shows all possible completions of the content at the viewer's cursor position.

void uninstall ()
          Uninstalls content assist support from the text viewer it has previously be installed on.

Field Detail

PROPOSAL_OVERLAY

static final int PROPOSAL_OVERLAY

The context info list will overlay the list of completion proposals.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

PROPOSAL_REMOVE

static final int PROPOSAL_REMOVE

The completion proposal list will be removed before the context info list will be shown.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

PROPOSAL_STACKED

static final int PROPOSAL_STACKED

The context info list will be presented without hiding or overlapping the completion proposal list.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

CONTEXT_INFO_ABOVE

static final int CONTEXT_INFO_ABOVE

Context info will be shown above the location it has been requested for without hiding the location.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

CONTEXT_INFO_BELOW

static final int CONTEXT_INFO_BELOW

Context info will be shown below the location it has been requested for without hiding the location.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

Method Detail

install

void install(
ITextViewer textViewer)

Installs content assist support on the given text viewer.

Parameters:: textViewer - the text viewer on which content assist will work

uninstall

void uninstall()

Uninstalls content assist support from the text viewer it has previously be installed on.

showPossibleCompletions


String showPossibleCompletions()

Shows all possible completions of the content at the viewer's cursor position.

Returns:: an optional error message if no proposals can be computed

showContextInformation


String showContextInformation()

Shows context information for the content at the viewer's cursor position.

Returns:: an optional error message if no context information can be computed

getContentAssistProcessor


IContentAssistProcessor getContentAssistProcessor(
String contentType)

Returns the content assist processor to be used for the given content type.

Parameters:: contentType - the type of the content for which this content assistant is to be requested
Returns:: an instance content assist processor or null if none exists for the specified content type