Recipe 12.11 Automatically Adding a Plug-in to a Perspective

     

12.11.1 Problem

You don't want users to have to explicitly add your plug-in to a perspective by customizing it.

12.11.2 Solution

Use the extension point org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions in plugin.xml to add the plug-in to the perspective automatically.

12.11.3 Discussion

To automatically add a plug-in to a perspective, use the extension point org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions in plugin.xml . You can make this just by editing the XML in plugin.xml . Here's how to automatically add the plug-in developed over the previous few recipes to the Java perspective in plugin.xml :

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <plugin    id="org.cookbook.ch12.MenuPlugInFromScratch"    name="MenuPlugInFromScratch Plug-in"    version="1.0.0"    provider-name="Eclipse Cookbook"    class="org.cookbook.ch12.MenuPlugInFromScratch.MenuPlugInFromScratchPlugin">    <runtime>       <library name="MenuPlugInFromScratch.jar"/>    </runtime>    <requires>       <import plugin="org.eclipse.core.resources"/>       <import plugin="org.eclipse.ui"/>    </requires>    <extension          point="org.eclipse.ui.actionSets">       <actionSet             label="Action Set 1"             visible="true"             id="org.cookbook.ch12.MenuPlugInFromScratch.actionSet1">          <menu                label="Menu 1"                id="Menu1">             <separator                   name="Group1">             </separator>          </menu>          <action                label="Action 1"                class="org.cookbook.ch12.MenuPlugInFromScratch.Action1"                tooltip="This action is functional."                menubarPath="Menu1/Group1"                toolbarPath="Group1"                id="Action1">          </action>       </actionSet>    </extension>  <extension   point = "org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions">   <perspectiveExtension   targetID="org.eclipse.ui.javaPerspective">   <actionSet   id="org.cookbook.ch12.MenuPlugInFromScratch.actionSet1">   </actionSet>   </perspectiveExtension>   </extension>  </plugin> 

Save plugin.xml after editing it, and restart the Run-time Workbench. When you do, the new plug-in should appear on startup.

Other perspectives can be reached using similar nomenclature . For example, to add a plug-in to the Resource perspective, use org.eclipse.ui.resourcePerspective .