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Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP)Introduction

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Who am I? Eclipse as a platform What is Eclipse RCP? Extension Points / Extensions Equinox SWT & JFace View coupeling Summary

Agenda – Introduction to Eclipse RCP

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Lars Vogel◦ Working for SAP AG as a product manager responsible for

SAP Transportation Management◦ Open source enthusiastic◦ Active in the Java and Eclipse ecosystem

Who am I ?

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Eclipse RCP distribution, via www.eclipse.org/downlods

Or installation of feature „Eclipse RCP“ via the Eclipse update manager

Software Requirements

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Platform◦ Small runtime◦ Complex applications can be extensible without the need to

adjust existing code

Eclipse IDE - Building a platform

Runtime

Platform

Application

Extensible Application

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Nov. 2001 – Code released as open Source Juni 2004 – Eclipse 3.0 based on OSGi and enables

Eclipse RCP

Current Eclipse 3.4.2 (aka Ganymede)

Eclipse – Short History

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Local running application using the native widget toolkit

Based on the Eclipse runtime and technology Eclipse RCP applications can be standalone or may

require server communication

What is an Eclipse RCP application?

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Component model Rich user experience Platform (OS) independent Extensible

Re-use of existing Eclipse functionality Helps avoiding writing boilerplate code, e.g. automatic

update Excellent community

Why Eclipse RCP?

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Eclipse RCP application

Application

ApplicationWorkbenchAdvisor

ApplicationWorkbenchWindowAdvisor

ApplicationActionBarAdvisor

Calls PlattfromUI.createAndRunWorkbench

Defines the initial perspective

Settings for the window, e.g. toolbar visible, etc

Defines initial Actions (outdated)

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MANIFEST.MF – Defines OSGi bundle plugin.xml – Defines Eclipse extensions and extension

points build.properties – property file for export

PDE (Plug-in Development Environement) provides editors for these files.

Important configuration files

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Extension Points allow to add functionality to pre-defined points

Each plug-in can define it‘s own extension points allowing other to contribute

Each plug-in can define extensions, providing functionality to pre-defined extension points

RCP developer use primary the existing platfrom extension points to define their application

Extensions and Extension Points

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plugin.xml contains description of all extensions and extension points

Contributions are only loaded when they are needed -> lazy loading to save memory and keep startup time small

Extensions and Extension Points

*Graphic Source: Internet

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A command in Eclipse is a declarative description of a component and is independent from the implementation details.

A command can be categorized Key binding can be assigned to the command.

Example: Commands

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Key components of Eclipse RCP

Runtime / EquinoxSWT

JFace

Workbench

…

…

Other Plug-ins…

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Reference implementation of OSGi Dynamic module system Wildly used, e.g. in application servers Allows to

◦ Define dependencies between Plug-ins◦ Hide plug-in internal implementation details

Eclipse plug-in is always an OSGi bundle and vice versa

Equinox – Modular Architecture

Equinox

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View available for plug-in dependency analysis Graphical tool can be found on

http://www.eclipse.org/pde/incubator/dependency-visualization/

Excursus: Visual Plug-in Dependencies

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Plug-in(s) for the domain model Plug-in(s) for the core functionality Plug-in(s) for the UI functionality

Modularity allows you to grow as you go

“Typical” RCP Architecture

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SWT Standard Widget Toolkit◦ Thin layer upon the native GUI libraries ◦ JNI calls◦ Not a lot of conviniant functionality

SWT

*Screenshot from the Internet

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JFace◦ UI toolkit that provides helper classes for developing UI features◦ Tables / TreeViewer / Dialogs / ◦ Can be based on models◦ Databinding

Workbench ◦ multi-window environment ◦ manages views, editors, perspectives 

JFace & Workbench

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Viewer: Table / Treeviewer: Responsible for the UI LabelProvider: How is the domain model represented ModelProvider: Delivery the domain model ViewerSorter: Sorts values in the viewer ViewerFilter: Filters values

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Example: JFace Viewer

Viewer –

UI, shows data

ContentProvider –

„Dao“ for viewer LabelProvider –

Which data is represented how

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View / Viewer can be selection provider, e.g. getSite().setSelectionProvider(viewer);

Another view can register without knowing which view are responible for the changes◦ Needs to implement ISelectionListener◦ Must itself register as SelectionListener, via

getSite().getWorkbenchWindow().getSelectionService().addSelectionListener(this)

Allows Loose Coupeling

ViewPart Coupeling

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Contains the branding, e.g. splashscreen, icons, „About“ dialog

Configuration for different operating systems Used for exporting the final application

Eclipse Product

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Find in Eclipse which parts you are looking at Make coding analysis and re-use extremly easy Shortcut Alt+Shift+F1

Add org.eclipse.pde.runtime and org.eclipse.ui.forms as dependency to have Plug-in Spy in your own RCP application

Excursus: Plug-in Spy

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Eclipse RCP is a powerful framework to develop native looking, modular, extensible applications.

„Billions“;-) of new API‘s to learn….

Very powerful but complex framework

Summary

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The whole world of Eclipse projects is available for RCP◦ Modelling (EMF)◦ Reporting (BIRT)◦ Graphical Editors (GEF, GMF, Zest)◦ Automatic Updates (p2 Update)◦ Presentation Framework◦ PDE Build / PDE JUnit◦ Internationalization

Eclipse RCP in the Web -> Eclipse RAP Eclipse RCP on the mobile device -> eRCP

Eclipse E4 ◦ Styling of UI components via CSS◦ XWT -> allows declarative UI definition

Where is much more to Eclipse RCP…

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Introduction to Eclipse RCP◦ http://www.vogella.de/articles/RichClientPlatform/article.html

Eclipse RCP podcast◦ http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/podcasts/9-RCP-

Jeff.McAffer.mp3?source=podcasts

Book: Eclipse Rich Client Platform◦ By Jeff McAffer and Jean-Michel Lemieux◦ Addison-Wesley Professional ◦ Attention: Second Edition planned for June 2009

Recommended Reading

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