Eclipse DemoCamps 2015 Shenzhen

1. XMind
One of the Best Eclipse RCP Apps
frank@xmind.net
twitter:@frankshaka
weibo:@frankshaka
Frank Shaka
CTO/Co-Founder, XMind Ltd.

2. What is XMind?

3. XMind is...
• a cross-platform brainstorming and mind
mapping tool that's easy to use and easy to
extend
• an application based on Eclipse RCP
• an open source project
"Best Commercial RCP Application" of Eclipse
Community Awards at EclipseCon 2008
"Best Project for Academia" of SourceForge's 4th
Annual Community Choice Awards in 2009

4. Reference: http://conciselearning.tumblr.com/post/9830232462/this-mind-map-created-by-learning-fundamentals

5. –Tony Buzan
“A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique
which provides a universal key to unlock the
potential of the brain.”

6. Mind Maps are Useful...
• to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, ...
• for studying/organizing information, solving problems,
clarify thinking, making decisions, writing, ...
• in many personal, family, educational and business
situations, including note-taking, brainstorming,
summarizing, memorizing, categorizing, ...
• improving learning/study efficiency up to 15% over
conventional note-taking

7. Hand Drawn Mind Maps
Reference: http://mappio.com/mindmap/learning-fundamentals/population-explosion

8. Mind Mapping Software
Reference: http://www.xmind.net/m/DLKZ/

9. • Pens and paper, the classic
way
• Slow
• Bounded
• Hard to make modifications
• Waste of environmental
resources
• Computer, keyboard, mouse,
touch, etc.
• Fast
• Boundless
• Easy to reorganize/refactor
• Support for additional
diagrams, like tree chart, org
chart, spreadsheet, gantt
chart, etc.
Hand Drawn Mind Maps vs. Mind Mapping Software

11. XMind ❤ Eclipse

12. XMind ❤ Eclipse
• Cross Platform
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
• Modularity
Plug-in system, RCP, p2
• Mature Code Base
SWT, JFace, Equinox, GEF
• Powerful IDE and SDK
JDT, PDE, EGit, TPTP

13. Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP)
• An extendable framework to facilitate rich client
application development
• org.eclipse.ui + org.eclipse.core.runtime
• Write once, run anywhere
• Bundled as native apps, in contrast to traditional
Java applications (.jar)

14. XMind Software Architecture
XMind Distribution Package
Mind Map Editor
Other UI
Contributions
Cathy
Application
Mind Map Viewer Workbench (Editors, Views)
XMind
Core
Draw2D JFace
SWT Equinox

15. Challenges
• The classic user interface is over 7 years old

16. XMind 2008
in 2008
XMind 6
in 2015

17. Challenges
• The classic user interface is over 7 years old
• Flat design of major platforms

19. Challenges
• The classic user interface is over 7 years old
• Flat design of major platforms
• Hard to customize Workbench's look and feel
using 3.x APIs

21. e4
CSS Spy
3.x Compatibility Layer
EventAdmin
Addons
EModelService
EPartService
Hierarchical Contexts
Model Fragments
CSS Widget Styling
Custom Renderer
Dependency Injection
Application Model

22. Goals of New XMind UI
• Migrate from 3.x API to e4 (long term)
• Adapt to flat design
• Redesign main toolbar
• Redesign tab folder
• Usability improvements

23. Demo
New XMind UI

25. Target Release
Later this year

26. Thanks and Q/A