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| <TITLE>Beyond the basics</TITLE> |
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| <H2> |
| Beyond the basics</H2> |
| |
| <p> |
| This section provides additional information about advanced API in the compare |
| plug-in.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Writing compare operations</h3> |
| |
| <p>A compare operation must be implemented as a subclass of |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>. |
| A |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a> |
| runs a (potentially lengthy) compare operation |
| under progress monitor control, creates a UI for drilling-down into the |
| compare results, tracks the dirty state of the result in case of merge, |
| and saves any changes that occurred during a merge.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareUI.html"><b>CompareUI</b></a> |
| defines the entry point to initiate a configurable |
| compare operation on arbitrary resources. The result of the compare is |
| opened into a compare editor where the details can be browsed and edited |
| in dynamically selected structure and content viewers. |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/NavigationAction.html"><b>NavigationAction</b></a> |
| is used to navigate (step) through the individual |
| differences of a |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>. |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareConfiguration.html"><b>CompareConfiguration</b></a> |
| configures various UI aspects |
| of compare/merge viewers like title labels and images, or whether a side |
| of a merge viewer is editable. It is passed to the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a> |
| on creation. |
| <p> |
| |
| When implementing a hierarchical compare operation as a subclass of |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>, |
| clients must provide a tree of objects where each |
| node implements the interface |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.html"><b>IStructureComparator</b></a>. |
| This interface is used by the hierarchical differencing engine |
| (<a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/Differencer.html"><b>Differencer</b></a>) to walk the tree. |
| <br> |
| In addition every leaf of the tree must implement the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IStreamContentAccessor.html"><b>IStreamContentAccessor</b></a> |
| interface in order to give the differencing engine access to its stream content. |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/BufferedContent.html"><b>BufferedContent</b></a> |
| provides a default implementation |
| for the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IStreamContentAccessor.html"><b>IStreamContentAccessor</b></a> |
| and |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IContentChangeNotifier.html"><b>IContentChangeNotifier</b></a> |
| interfaces. |
| Its subclass |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/ResourceNode.html"><b>ResourceNode</b></a> |
| adds an implementation for the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.html"><b>IStructureComparator</b></a> |
| and |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/ITypedElement.html"><b>ITypedElement</b></a> |
| interfaces |
| based on platform workbench resources |
| (<a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/core/resources/IResource.html"><b>IResource</b></a>). |
| It can be used without modification as the input to the differencing engine. |
| |
| |
| <h3>Compare functionality outside of compare editors</h3> |
| |
| |
| <p>If you want to use compare functionality outside of the standard compare editor |
| (for example, in a dialog or wizard) the compare plug-in provides additional helper |
| classes.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareViewerPane.html"><b>CompareViewerPane</b></a> |
| is a convenience class which provides |
| a label and local toolbar for a compare viewer (or any other subclass of a <a href="jface_viewers.htm"> JFace |
| viewer</a>). Its abstract subclass |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareViewerSwitchingPane.html"><b>CompareViewerSwitchingPane</b></a> |
| supports <b>dynamic viewer switching</b>, that is the viewer installed in the pane is dynamically |
| determined by the pane's input object.<p> |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/EditionSelectionDialog.html"><b>EditionSelectionDialog</b></a> |
| is a simple selection dialog where |
| one input element can be compared against a list of historic variants (<b>editions</b>) |
| of the same input element. The dialog is used to implement functions |
| like <i>"</i><b>Replace with Local History"</b> on workbench resources. |
| <p> |
| |
| In addition it is possible to specify a subsection of the input element |
| (e.g. a method in a Java source file) by means of a <b>path</b>. In this |
| case the dialog compares only the subsection (as specified by the path) |
| with the corresponding subsection in the list of editions. This functionality |
| can be used to implement <i>"</i><b>Replace with Element from Local History"</b> for |
| Java Elements. |
| <p> |
| |
| The |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/EditionSelectionDialog.html"><b>EditionSelectionDialog</b></a> |
| requires that the editions implement the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IStreamContentAccessor.html"><b>IStreamContentAccessor</b></a> |
| and |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IModificationDate.html"><b>IModificationDate</b></a> |
| interfaces. |
| The |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/HistoryItem.html"><b>HistoryItem</b></a> |
| is a convenience class that implements these interfaces for |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/core/resources/IFileState.html"><b>IFileState</b></a> objects. |
| <p> |
| |
| |
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