This document provides an overview of the main Eclipse ecosystem classes, including the runtime platform core and runtime, resource management, and jobs. It discusses key classes like Platform, PluginBundle, Bundle, and IResource that provide the basic infrastructure and services in Eclipse. It also covers topics like logging, the Eclipse file system, jobs for background operations, and workspace operations.

1. Eclipse Plug-ins
and RCP
Training Course
Main Eclipse ecosystem classes
October 2013Copyright © 2013 Luca D’Onofrio – RCP Solutions
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2. 1. Runtime Platform Core & Runtime
a) Plugin & Bundle classes
b) Platform User Interface
c) Logging
2. Resource Management
3. Jobs
a) Progress monitoring
b) Workspace operations
Agenda
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October 2013Copyright © 2013 Luca D’Onofrio – RCP Solutions

3. ∗ The core component provides basic platform infrastructure that does not involve any UI.
∗ Main plug-ins:
∗ org.eclipse.core.contenttype - Support for defining and managing file content types
∗ org.eclipse.core.expressions - A generic XML-based expression language used in the
markup of various extension points.
∗ org.eclipse.core.filesystem - A generic file system API
∗ org.eclipse.core.jobs - Infrastructure for concurrent programming in Eclipse
∗ org.eclipse.core.resources - Management of resources - projects, folders, and files
∗ org.eclipse.core.runtime - Formerly the foundation of the platform, this plug-in has
largely been supplanted by the Equinox runtime
∗ Each plug-in provides a basic set of services, and API and extension points for managing
and interacting with those services.
∗ The contents of resources are never examined in any domain-specific way and the Core
can run equally well with and without a UI.
∗ Much of the function previously provided by core now falls under the Equinox OSGi
project
Platform Core & Runtime
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October 2013

4. ∗ The central class of the Eclipse Platform Runtime.
This class cannot be instantiated or subclassed by
clients; all functionality is provided by static methods.
∗ The Platform defines the set of frameworks and
common services that collectively make up
infrastructure required to support the use of Eclipse
as a component model, as a Rich Client Platform
(RCP) and as a comprehensive tool integration
platform.
∗ Features include:
∗ the platform registry of installed plug-ins
∗ the platform adapter manager
∗ the platform log
∗ the authorization info management
Platform core
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class Platform
runtime::Platform
{leaf}
+ addAuthorizationInfo(URL, String, String, Map) : void
+ getAdapterManager() : IAdapterManager
+ getAuthorizationInfo(URL, String, String) : Map
+ getCommandLineArgs() : String[]
+ getDebugOption(String) : String
+ getLocation() : IPath
+ getPlugin(String) : Plugin
+ getPluginRegistry() : IPluginRegistry
+ resolve(URL) : URL
+ getJobManager() : IJobManager
+ getExtensionRegistry() : IExtensionRegistry
+ find(Bundle, IPath) : URL
+ find(Bundle, IPath, Map<String,String>) : URL
+ getLog(Bundle) : ILog
+ getOSArch() : String
+ getNL() : String
+ getNLExtensions() : String
+ getOS() : String
+ getWS() : String
+ getApplicationArgs() : String[]
+ getPlatformAdmin() : PlatformAdmin
+ getPreferencesService() : IPreferencesService
+ getProduct() : IProduct
+ getConfigurationLocation() : Location
+ getUserLocation() : Location
+ getInstallLocation() : Location
+ isFragment(Bundle) : boolean
+ getFragments(Bundle) : Bundle[]
+ getBundle(String) : Bundle
+ getBundles(String, String) : Bundle[]
+ isRunning() : boolean
+ inDebugMode() : boolean
October 2013

5. class PluginBundle
runtime::Plugin
+ Plugin()
+ Plugin(IPluginDescriptor)
+ find(IPath) : URL
+ find(IPath, Map) : URL
+ getDescriptor() : IPluginDescriptor
+ getLog() : ILog
+ getStateLocation() : IPath
+ getPluginPreferences() : Preferences
+ savePluginPreferences() : void
+ internalInitializeDefaultPluginPreferences() : void
+ isDebugging() : boolean
+ openStream(IPath) : InputStream
+ openStream(IPath, boolean) : InputStream
+ setDebugging(boolean) : void
+ shutdown() : void
+ startup() : void
+ start(BundleContext) : void
+ stop(BundleContext) : void
+ getBundle() : Bundle
Comparable
«interface»
framework::Bundle
+ UNINSTALLED: int = 0x00000001
+ INSTALLED: int = 0x00000002
+ RESOLVED: int = 0x00000004
+ STARTING: int = 0x00000008
+ STOPPING: int = 0x00000010
+ ACTIVE: int = 0x00000020
+ START_TRANSIENT: int = 0x00000001
+ START_ACTIVATION_POLICY: int = 0x00000002
+ STOP_TRANSIENT: int = 0x00000001
+ SIGNERS_ALL: int = 1
+ SIGNERS_TRUSTED: int = 2
+ getState() : int
+ start(int) : void
+ start() : void
+ stop(int) : void
+ stop() : void
+ update(InputStream) : void
+ update() : void
+ uninstall() : void
+ getHeaders() : Dictionary<String, String>
+ getBundleId() : long
+ getLocation() : String
+ getRegisteredServices() : ServiceReference<?>[]
+ getServicesInUse() : ServiceReference<?>[]
+ hasPermission(Object) : boolean
+ getResource(String) : URL
+ getHeaders(String) : Dictionary<String, String>
+ getSymbolicName() : String
+ loadClass(String) : Class<?>
+ getResources(String) : Enumeration<URL>
+ getEntryPaths(String) : Enumeration<String>
+ getEntry(String) : URL
+ getLastModified() : long
+ findEntries(String, String, boolean) : Enumeration<URL>
+ getBundleContext() : BundleContext
+ getSignerCertificates(int) : Map<X509Certificate, List<X509Certificate>>
+ getVersion() : Version
+ adapt(Class<A>) : A
+ getDataFile(String) : File
+bundle
Plugin & Bundle classes
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October 2013

6. ∗ Platform UI consists of several components, which provide the basic building blocks
for user interfaces built with Eclipse. (Some of these can be reused in arbitrary
applications, while others are specific to the Eclipse IDE).
∗ JFace and the Workbench can be used to build arbitrary applications, not just the
Eclipse IDE. The Eclipse IDE is just one instance of an RCP application.
∗ JFace is a UI toolkit with classes for handling many common UI programming
tasks. JFace is window-system-independent in both its API and implementation,
and is designed to work with SWT without hiding it. JFace includes the usual UI
toolkit components of image and font registries, text, dialog, preference and
wizard frameworks, and progress reporting for long running operations.
∗ The Workbench provides the user interface structure for Eclipse. The purpose of
the Workbench is to facilitate the seamless integration of tools. These tools
contribute to extension points defined by the Workbench.
Platform User Interface
(1/2)
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7. ∗ The central class for access to the Eclipse Platform User
Interface. This class cannot be instantiated; all functionality is
provided by static methods. Features provided:
∗ Creation of the workbench.
∗ Access to the workbench.
Platform User Interface
(2/2)
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October 2013

8. Logging
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October 2013

9. ∗ The Eclipse File System (EFS) is an abstract file system API. It is
used in the Eclipse platform to abstract away implementation
details about what file system is used to store data in the
workspace.
∗ EFS makes heavy use of Uniform Resource Identifiers, as
defined by RFC 2396.
∗ Implementations:
∗ Local file system for resource management
∗ Remote System Explorer (SSH, FTP, …)
∗ FTP, ZIP, CVS, …
Resource Management: EFS
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October 2013

10. class resources
IAdaptable
«interface»
IContainer
IEncodedStorage
IAdaptable
«interface»
IFile
IAdaptable
«interface»
IFolder
IAdaptable
«interface»
IMarker
IAdaptable
«interface»
IProject
«interface»
IProjectDescription
«interface»
IProjectNature
IAdaptable
ISchedulingRule
«interface»
IResource
IAdaptable
«interface»
IWorkspace
IAdaptable
«interface»
IWorkspaceRoot
0..*
0..*
1..*
Resources Hierarchy
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October 2013

11. ∗ Copy / Move
∗ Create / Delete
∗ Exists
∗ Get Parent
∗ Get Location (IPath)
∗ Get Location (URI)
∗ Get Project
∗ Get Workspace
∗ Refresh
∗ Resource change listener management
∗ Markers management
∗ Persistent properties management
∗ Session properties management
∗ Find Marker
Resources operations
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∗ Resource type attribute
∗ FILE
∗ FOLDER
∗ PROJECT
∗ ROOT
∗ DERIVED
∗ LINKED
∗ Synchronized
∗ Local
∗ Hidden
∗ Read Only
∗ Refresh attributes
∗ DEPTH_ZERO, DEPTH_ONE,
DEPTH_INFINITE
October 2013

12. ∗ Long-running operations should be executed in the background so that the
UI stays responsive. One solution is to fork a lower-priority thread to perform
the operation rather than performing the operation in the UI thread.
∗ Eclipse provides a Jobs API for creating, managing, and displaying
background operations.
∗ Jobs: jobs are units of runnable work that can be scheduled to be run with
the job manager.
∗ UIJobs: the UIJob is a Job that runs within the UI Thread via an asyncExec.
Jobs
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October 2013

13. ∗ The IProgressMonitor object can be used to report progress.
∗ beginTask() specifies the total units of work. For an undefined
amount of work use IProgressMonitor .UNKNOWN
∗ worked() reports that a certain number of units of work have been
finished.
∗ isCancelled() checks if the user send a job cancel request
∗ done() all the work has been complete (successfully or not)
∗ A monitor can have one ore more sub progress monitors.
∗ The run method of a Job provide returns a IStatus object to the
caller:
∗ Status.CANCEL_STATUS
∗ Status.OK_STATUS
Jobs: progress monitoring
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October 2013

14. ∗ An operation which potentially makes changes to the
workspace.
∗ All resource modification should be performed using this
operation.
∗ The primary consequence of using this operation is that events
which typically occur as a result of workspace changes are
generally deferred until the outermost operation has
successfully completed.
∗ If a scheduling rule is provided, the operation will obtain that
scheduling rule for the duration of its execute method. If no
scheduling rule is provided, the operation will obtain a
scheduling rule that locks the entire workspace for the duration
of the operation.
Jobs: Workspace
operations
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October 2013

15. References
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∗ www.eclipse.org
∗ help.eclipse.org
∗ wiki.eclipse.org
∗ Eclipse SDK update site
∗ http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.3
October 2013