Property Pages
Identifier:
org.eclipse.ui.propertyPages
Description:
This extension point is used to add additional property page for objects of a given type. Once defined, these property pages will appear in the Properties Dialog for objects of that type.
A property page is a user friendly way to interact with the properties of an object. Unlike the Properties view, which restricts the space available for editing an object property, a property page may benefit from the freedom to define larger, more complex controls with labels, icons, etc. Properties which logically go together may also be clustered in a page, rather than scattered in the property sheet. However, in most applications it will be appropriate to expose some properties of an object via the property sheet and some via the property pages.
Property pages are shown in a dialog box that is normally visible when the "Properties" menu item is selected on a pop-up menu for an object. In addition to the object class, the name filter can optionally be supplied to register property pages only for specific object types.
If these filtering mechanisms are inadequate a property page may use the filter mechanism. In this case the attributes of the target object are described in a series of key value pairs. The attributes which apply to the selection are type specific and beyond the domain of the workbench itself, so the workbench will delegate filtering at this level to the actual selection.
Configuration Markup:
<!ELEMENT extension (
page*)>
<!ATTLIST extension
point CDATA #REQUIRED
id CDATA #IMPLIED
name CDATA #IMPLIED
>
-
point - a fully qualified identifier of the target extension point
-
id - an optional identifier of the extension instance
-
name - an optional name of the extension instance
<!ELEMENT page (
filter* ,
keywordReference* ,
enabledWhen?)>
<!ATTLIST page
id CDATA #REQUIRED
name CDATA #REQUIRED
icon CDATA #IMPLIED
objectClass CDATA #IMPLIED
class CDATA #REQUIRED
nameFilter CDATA #IMPLIED
adaptable (true | false)
category IDREF #IMPLIED
>
The page is the specification of the implementation and appearance of the page.
-
id - a unique name that will be used to identify this page
-
name - a translatable name that will be used in the UI for this page
-
icon - a relative path to an icon that will be used in the UI in addition to the page name
-
Deprecated objectClass - a fully qualified name of the class for which the page is registered. This class does not need to implement IAdaptable. Objects that are not an instance of IAdaptable will be wrappered in an IAdaptable before being sent to the property page's instance (an org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPropertyPage).
Deprecated in Eclipse 3.3. Use the instanceOf or adapt element of the enabledWhen element instead. If duplicate page definitions were previously used to register the page for multiple objectClass types, these should be combined into one page definition using multiple instanceOf elements combined inside an or element
-
class - a fully qualified name of the class that implements org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPropertyPage.
-
nameFilter - an optional attribute that allows registration conditional on
wild card match applied to the target object name.
-
Deprecated adaptable - a flag that indicates if types that adapt to IResource should use this property page.
This flag is used if objectClass adapts to IResource. Default value is false.
Deprecated in Eclipse 3.3. Use adapt sub element of the enabledWhen element instead
NOTE: The adaptable attribute will attempt adapt an object to org.eclipse.core.resources.IResource
before referencing the types registered in Platform#getAdaptorManager
. The enabledWhen element has no special case tests for org.eclipse.core.resources.IResource
and uses Platform#getAdaptorManager
to look up adaptable types. These can be registered using the org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptors
extension point.
-
category - A path indicating the location of the page in the properties tree. The path may either be a parent node ID or a sequence of IDs separated by '/', representing the full path from the root node.
<!ELEMENT filter EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST filter
name CDATA #REQUIRED
value CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to evaluate the attribute state of each object in the current selection. A match only if each object in the selection has the specified attribute state. Each object in the selection must implement, or adapt to, org.eclipse.ui.IActionFilter.
-
name - the name of an object attribute.
-
value - the value of an object attribute. In combination with
the name attribute, the name value pair is used to
define the target object for a property page.
<!ELEMENT keywordReference EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST keywordReference
id IDREF #IMPLIED
>
A reference by a property page to a keyword. See the keywords extension point.
-
id - The id of the keyword being referred to.
<!ELEMENT enabledWhen (
not |
and |
or |
instanceof |
test |
systemTest |
equals |
count |
with |
resolve |
adapt |
iterate |
reference)>
The enabled when element specifies the conditions under which this property page will be added to the properties dialog.
<!ELEMENT enablement (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
A generic root element. The element can be used inside an extension point to define its enablement expression.
The children of an enablement expression are combined using the and operator.
<!ELEMENT not (
not |
and |
or |
instanceof |
test |
systemTest |
equals |
count |
with |
resolve |
adapt |
iterate |
reference)>
This element represent a NOT operation on the result of evaluating it's sub-element expression.
<!ELEMENT and (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
This element represent an AND operation on the result of evaluating all it's sub-elements expressions.
<!ELEMENT or (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
This element represent an OR operation on the result of evaluating all it's sub-element expressions.
<!ELEMENT instanceof EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST instanceof
value CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to perform an instanceof check of the object in focus. The expression returns
EvaluationResult.TRUE if the object's type is a sub type of the type specified by the attribute value.
Otherwise EvaluationResult.FALSE is returned.
-
value - a fully qualified name of a class or interface.
<!ELEMENT test EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST test
property CDATA #REQUIRED
args CDATA #IMPLIED
value CDATA #IMPLIED
forcePluginActivation (true | false)
>
This element is used to evaluate the property state of the object in focus. The set of
testable properties can be extended using the propery tester extension point. The test
expression returns EvaluationResult.NOT_LOADED if the property tester doing the actual
testing isn't loaded yet and the attribute forcePluginActivation is set to false.
If forcePluginActivation is set to true and the evaluation context used to evaluate
this expression support plug-in activation then evaluating the property will result in
activating the plug-in defining the tester.
-
property - the name of an object's property to test.
-
args - additional arguments passed to the property tester. Multiple arguments are separated
by commas. Each individual argument is converted into a Java base type using the same
rules as defined for the value attribute of the test expression.
-
value - the expected value of the property. Can be omitted if the property
is a boolean property. The test expression is supposed to return
EvaluationResult.TRUE if the property matches the value and EvaluationResult.FALSE
otherwise. The value attribute is converted into a Java base type using the following
rules:
- the string "true" is converted into Boolean.TRUE
- the string "false" is converted into Boolean.FALSE
- if the string contains a dot then the interpreter tries to convert
the value into a Float object. If this fails the string is treated as a
java.lang.String
- if the string only consists of numbers then the interpreter
converts the value in an Integer object.
- in all other cases the string is treated as a java.lang.String
- the conversion of the string into a Boolean, Float, or Integer can
be suppressed by surrounding the string with single quotes. For
example, the attribute value="'true'" is converted into the
string "true"
-
forcePluginActivation - a flag indicating whether the plug-in contributing the property tester
should be loaded if necessary. As such, this flag should be used judiciously,
in order to avoid unnecessary plug-in activations. Most clients should avoid
setting this flag to true. This flag is only honored if the evaluation context
used to evaluate this expression allows plug-in activation. Otherwise the flag
is ignored and no plug-in loading takes place.
<!ELEMENT systemTest EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST systemTest
property CDATA #REQUIRED
value CDATA #REQUIRED
>
Tests a system property by calling the System.getProperty method and compares the result
with the value specified through the value attribute.
-
property - the name of an system property to test.
-
value - the expected value of the property. The value is interpreted as a string value.
<!ELEMENT equals EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST equals
value CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to perform an equals check of the object in focus. The expression returns
EvaluationResult.TRUE if the object is equal to the value provided by the attribute value. Otherwise
EvaluationResult.FALSE is returned.
-
value - the expected value. The value provided as a string is converted into
a Java base type using the same rules as for the value attribute of the test expression.
<!ELEMENT count EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST count
value CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to test the number of elements in a collection.
-
value - an expression to specify the number of elements in a list. Following wildcard
characters can be used:
- *
- any number of elements
- ?
- no elements or one element
- +
- one or more elements
- !
- no elements
- -N)
- less than N elements
- (N-
- greater than N elements
- integer value
- the list must contain the exact number of elements
<!ELEMENT with (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
<!ATTLIST with
variable CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element changes the object to be inspected for all its child element to the object
referenced by the given variable. If the variable can not be resolved then the expression
will throw an ExpressionException when evaluating it. The children of a with expression
are combined using the and operator.
-
variable - the name of the variable to be used for further inspection. It is up to the evaluator
of an extension point to provide the variable in the variable pool.
<!ELEMENT resolve (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
<!ATTLIST resolve
variable CDATA #REQUIRED
args CDATA #IMPLIED
>
This element changes the object to be inspected for all its child element to the object
referenced by the given variable. If the variable can not be resolved then the expression
will throw an ExpressionException when evaluating it. The children of a resolve expression
are combined using the and operator.
-
variable - the name of the variable to be resolved. This variable is then used as the object in focus
for child element evaluation. It is up to the evaluator of an extension point to provide a
corresponding variable resolver (see IVariableResolver) through the evaluation context passed
to the root expression element when evaluating the expression.
-
args - additional arguments passed to the variable resolver. Multiple arguments are separated
by commas. Each individual argument is converted into a Java base type using the same
rules as defined for the value attribute of the test expression.
<!ELEMENT adapt (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
<!ATTLIST adapt
type CDATA #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to adapt the object in focus to the type specified by the attribute
type. The expression returns not loaded if either the adapter or the type referenced isn't
loaded yet. It throws an ExpressionException during evaluation if the type name doesn't exist
at all. The children of an adapt expression are combined using the and operator.
-
type - the type to which the object in focus is to be adapted.
<!ELEMENT iterate (
not ,
and ,
or ,
instanceof ,
test ,
systemTest ,
equals ,
count ,
with ,
resolve ,
adapt ,
iterate ,
reference)*>
<!ATTLIST iterate
operator (or|and)
ifEmpty (true | false)
>
This element is used to iterate over a variable that is of type java.util.Collection, or a variable that
adapts to org.eclipse.core.expressions.IIterable. If the object in focus is not one of the above then a
CoreException with an ExpressionStatus will be thrown while evaluating the expression.
The child expressions of an iterate expression are combined using the and operator.
-
operator - either "and" or "or". The operator defines how the results of all the child expressions
applied to each child of the Collection or IIterable will be combined and what (if any) short circuit
evaluation will be used. If not specified, "and" will be used.
-
ifEmpty - the value return from the iterate expression if the collection is empty. If
not specified then true is returned when the operator equals "and"
and false is return if the operator equals "or".
<!ELEMENT reference EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST reference
definitionId IDREF #REQUIRED
>
This element is used to reference an expression from the org.eclipse.core.expressions.definitions extension point. The expression definition will be evaluated within the current expression element using the current evaluation context.
-
definitionId - The unique id of an expression from org.eclipse.core.expressions.definitions.
Examples:
The following is an example of the property page definition:
<extension point=
"org.eclipse.ui.propertyPages"
>
<page
id=
"com.xyz.projectPage"
name=
"XYZ Java Properties"
class=
"com.xyz.ppages.JavaPropertyPage"
nameFilter=
"*.java"
>
<enabledWhen>
<instanceof
value=
"org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile"
>
</instanceof>
</enabledWhen>
<filter name=
"readOnly"
value=
"true"
/>
</page>
</extension>
Supplied Implementation:
Some objects provided by the workbench may have
property pages registered. Plug-ins are allowed
to add more property pages for these objects.
Property pages are not limited to workbench
resources: all objects showing up in the workbench
(even domain specific objects created by the plug-ins)
may have property pages and other plug-ins are
allowed to register property pages for them.
Copyright (c) 2002, 2006 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 https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html