implementing a plugin in the Eclipse Workbench - java

I am a newbie to eclipse plugin development. I want to implement a plugin that when selected opens a sidebar in the workbench. The sidebar should contain a search text box whose input is captured by the plugin and the output based on that is displayed below the text box.
I shall be grateful to anyone who can provide me with directions on how to get started and set up to implement such a plugin in the eclipse workbench, like what are the extensions I'll need to implement etc.
Thanks!

This book is the standard reference: http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Plug-ins-3rd-Eric-Clayberg/dp/0321553462

you probably want to implement a (sticky) view. And this should help get started http://www.eclipse.org/articles/viewArticle/ViewArticle2.html
Once you are sure about it let you more specific questions come.

Related

How should i create a page to explain how to use my plugin in eclipse?

i want to add something(i dont know what should i add editor/view or something else) to explain how to use my plugin for my plugin's users in eclipse.
This thing gotta have text, some images and a web-site link(this link send user to browser, shouldn't open in eclipse) and should open from a menu item.
What should i use for all of them?
Thanks in advance.

Highlight lines of code in an editor programmatically made using jface, eclipse SWT

I am currently using a bunch of eclipse, jface libraries to build a small editor. I am using eclipse's SourceViewer for it. I am trying to highlight/change the color of parts of my code in eclipse however I don't think I can use the concept of damager, repairer and PresentationReconciler because I want to highlight lines of code based on user selection. So if a user selects some code I can get the selected code by using
SourceViewer.getSelectionProvider().getSelection();
Which would return an ISelection and thats what I want to "Highlight". I am currently able to create Annotations which essentially creates squigglies under the text the user selects I would rather change the color of the selected text. Would much appreciate any help.
edit:
I am not developing as an eclipse plugin but as a standalone application using the plugin api's.

Eclipse Plugin Development: Extending default Java Editor/Text Hover

I've been trying develop my custom plugin for Eclipse, and basically I want to make is a "richer" version on the current TextHover. I don't know what widget(?) Eclipse uses to display the hovering text, but I want to use something different, like SWT Image or SWT Browser.
Most of the tutorials that I've read suggest that I have to implement my own Java Editor to do this, but I don't want the user to switch to my custom editor just for a simple feature (and I don't want to implement a whole editor).
Some Tests:
I've already created two Eclipse Plugin Projects. The first one is a extension for the JavaEditorTextHovers, and with this project I managed to show some custom Strings when hovering some random texts, but wasn't able to change the hover appearance. The second project was a editor plugin. With this last one I managed to get a Browser to appear when hovering a random text(this tutorial helped me), but again, this editor had nothing, no syntax coloring, no rules, etc., and for the previous reasons, I couldn't accept this has a solution.
Maybe if there was way to change the (or set a new) SourceViewerConfiguration of the current editor I could pass my custom SourceViewerConfiguration, but I'm not sure if this is possible.

Reusing Eclipse Run menu in Eclipse RCP application

I want to create an eclipse RCP application for a custom language. A programs which is written using the cutom language should be run and show it's output when the user click on the Run button.
Is it possible to integrate eclipse Run menu in eclipse RCP application with it's default features as we create NEW menu item by using ActionFactory? If it is possible how to do that?
Thanks in advance.
If you "just" want the Run menu along with the default entries, just include a dependency to org.eclipse.debug.ui.
You will then need to add launch configuration types for your specific language using the various extension point from the plugins org.eclipse.debug.core and org.eclipse.debug.ui.
As always, when it comes to the more advanced functionality of Eclipse, the easiest way to get access to the functionality is via resources and examples. Although it is a bit dated, the article "We Have Lift-off" (http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-Launch-Framework/launch.html) is the best starting point for this. Have a look at the various references to org.eclipse.debug.core.launchConfigurationTypes to find the best example to use asa starting point - in particular the ANT Build stuff as this is pretty simple...
In general you can find the plug-in that contributes a specific entry using the PDE Menu Spy (Alt-Shift-F2 on MacOS)...

Creating a "netbeans property" style dialog box

I've been trying to create a GUI using netbeans, that includes a dialog similar to Netbean's own "property dialog" that appears when designing. ie. a dialog that contains a table that can be expanded by tree nodes. Something like the dialog on this page, http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-property-editors.html
As far as I can understand, the page I linked to describes a custom editor I can set up for use within netbeans while designing - I'm just looking for a way to doing something similar for my actual application I'm writing. Is there an easy way to do this?
I came across this and have tried it but it doesn't quite work in the same way as the standard Netbeans dialog. weblogs.java.net/blog/timboudreau/archive/2008/06/egads_an_actual.html
Any tips greatly appreciated.
This will sound flip... but I am being serious.
The easiest way to do this is to write your app using the NetBeans RCP platform.
You may want to look at the Swing Application Framework, too.
There are a couple SAF samples integrated into NetBeans... You can read about them here: http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/java/gui-saf.html
I could not find a property editor dialog sample, though.
I found a couple other pointers, using this query: http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+write+a+property+editor+dialog+in+swing
You could take a look into the l2fprod components
(source: l2fprod.com)

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