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

An editor is a visual component within a workbench page. It is typically used to edit or browse a document or input object. The input is identified using an IEditorInput. Modifications made in an editor part follow an open-save-close lifecycle model (in contrast to a view part, where modifications are saved to the workbench immediately).

An editor is document or input-centric. Each editor has an input, and only one editor can exist for each editor input within a page. This policy has been designed to simplify part management.

An editor should be used in place of a view whenever more than one instance of a document type can exist.

This interface may be implemented directly. For convenience, a base implementation is defined in EditorPart.

An editor part is added to the workbench in two stages:

An editor extension is contributed to the workbench registry. This extension defines the extension id, extension class, and the file extensions which are supported by the editor.
An editor part based upon the extension is created and added to the workbench when the user opens a file with one of the supported file extensions (or some other suitable form of editor input).

All editor parts implement the IAdaptable interface; extensions are managed by the platform's adapter manager.

See Also:: IWorkbenchPage.openEditor(IEditorInput, String), EditorPart

Field Summary

static int PROP_DIRTY
          The property id for isDirty.

static int PROP_INPUT
          The property id for getEditorInput.

Fields inherited from interface org.eclipse.ui. IWorkbenchPart

PROP_TITLE

Method Summary

IEditorInput getEditorInput ()
          Returns the input for this editor.

IEditorSite getEditorSite ()
          Returns the site for this editor.

void init ( IEditorSite site, IEditorInput input)
          Initializes this editor with the given editor site and input.

Methods inherited from interface org.eclipse.ui. IWorkbenchPart

addPropertyListener, createPartControl, dispose, getSite, getTitle, getTitleImage, getTitleToolTip, removePropertyListener, setFocus

Methods inherited from interface org.eclipse.core.runtime. IAdaptable

getAdapter

Methods inherited from interface org.eclipse.ui. ISaveablePart

doSave, doSaveAs, isDirty, isSaveAsAllowed, isSaveOnCloseNeeded

Field Detail

PROP_DIRTY

static final int PROP_DIRTY

The property id for isDirty.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

PROP_INPUT

static final int PROP_INPUT

The property id for getEditorInput.

See Also:: Constant Field Values

Method Detail

getEditorInput


IEditorInput getEditorInput()

Returns the input for this editor. If this value changes the part must fire a property listener event with PROP_INPUT.

Returns:: the editor input

getEditorSite


IEditorSite getEditorSite()

Returns the site for this editor. This method is equivalent to (IEditorSite) getSite().

The site can be null while the editor is being initialized. After the initialization is complete, this value must be non-null for the remainder of the editor's life cycle.

Returns:: the editor site; this value may be null if the editor has not yet been initialized

init

void init(
IEditorSite site,
          
IEditorInput input)
          throws 
PartInitException

Initializes this editor with the given editor site and input.

This method is automatically called shortly after the part is instantiated. It marks the start of the part's lifecycle. The IWorkbenchPart.dispose method will be called automically at the end of the lifecycle. Clients must not call this method.

Implementors of this method must examine the editor input object type to determine if it is understood. If not, the implementor must throw a PartInitException

Parameters:: site - the editor site; input - the editor input
Throws:: PartInitException - if this editor was not initialized successfully