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| The plug-in class |
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| <H2> |
| The plug-in class</H2> |
| <P > |
| So far, we've been looking at the different extensions that are provided by the contributions plug-in. Let's look at the general |
| definition of the contributions plug-in.</P> |
| |
| <H3> |
| Plug-in definition</H3> |
| <P > |
| The readme tool plug-in is defined in the <b>MANIFEST.MF</b> file.</P> |
| <pre> |
| Manifest-Version: 1.0 |
| Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2 |
| Bundle-Name: %contributions.Activator.name |
| Bundle-SymbolicName: org.eclipse.ui.examples.contributions; singleton:=true |
| Bundle-Version: 3.3.100.qualifier |
| Bundle-Activator: org.eclipse.ui.examples.contributions.Activator |
| Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.ui;bundle-version="[3.3.0,4.0.0)", |
| org.eclipse.core.runtime, |
| org.eclipse.core.expressions;bundle-version="[3.3.0,4.0.0)" |
| Bundle-Vendor: %contributions.Activator.providerName |
| Bundle-Localization: plugin |
| Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: J2SE-1.4 |
| Bundle-ActivationPolicy: lazy |
| </pre> |
| <P > |
| The plug-in definition includes the <b>Bundle-Name</b>, <b>Bundle-SymbolicName</b> (plug-in id), |
| <b>Bundle-Version</b>, and <b>Bundle-Vendor</b> of the plug-in. We |
| saw most of these parameters before in our hello world plug-in. The contribution plug-in |
| also defines a specialized plug-in class, |
| <b>org.eclipse.ui.examples.contributions.Activator</b>. </P> |
| <P > |
| The <b>Require-Bundle</b> element informs the platform of the contribution plug-in's dependencies. |
| The workbench UI plug-ins are listed as required plug-ins, along with the various core and expression plug-ins. </P> |
| |
| <H3> |
| AbstractUIPlugin</H3> |
| <P > |
| The<b> Activator</b> class represents the contribution plug-in |
| and manages the life cycle of the plug-in. As we saw in the |
| Hello World example, you don't have to specify a plug-in class. The |
| platform will provide one for you. In this case, our plug-in needs to |
| initialize UI related data when it starts up. |
| The platform class <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/ui/plugin/AbstractUIPlugin.html"><b>AbstractUIPlugin</b></a> |
| provides a structure for managing UI resources and is extended by <b> |
| Activator</b>.</P> |
| <P > |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/ui/plugin/AbstractUIPlugin.html"><b>AbstractUIPlugin</b></a> |
| uses the generic startup and shutdown methods to manage images, dialog settings, and a preference store during the lifetime of the plug-in. |
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