bundles/org.eclipse.ui.workbench/Eclipse UI/org/eclipse/ui/IEditorPart.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2003 IBM Corporation and others.
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials 
 * are made available under the terms of the Common Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/cpl-v10.html
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/

package org.eclipse.ui;

/**
 * An editor is a visual component within a workbench page. It is
 * typically used to edit or browse a document or input object. The input 
 * is identified using an <code>IEditorInput</code>.  Modifications made 
 * in an editor part follow an open-save-close lifecycle model (in contrast 
 * to a view part, where modifications are saved to the workbench 
 * immediately).
 * <p>
 * An editor is document or input-centric.  Each editor has an input, and only
 * one editor can exist for each editor input within a page.  This policy has 
 * been designed to simplify part management.  
 * </p><p>
 * An editor should be used in place of a view whenever more than one instance
 * of a document type can exist.
 * </p><p>
 * This interface may be implemented directly.  For convenience, a base
 * implementation is defined in <code>EditorPart</code>.
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * An editor part is added to the workbench in two stages:
 * <ol>
 * 	<li>An editor extension is contributed to the workbench registry. This
 *    extension defines the extension id, extension class, and the file 
 *    extensions which are supported by the editor.</li>
 *  <li>An editor part based upon the extension is created and added to the
 *    workbench when the user opens a file with one of the supported file
 *    extensions (or some other suitable form of editor input).</li>
 * </ol>
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * All editor parts implement the <code>IAdaptable</code> interface; extensions
 * are managed by the platform's adapter manager.
 * </p>
 *
 * @see org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPage#openEditor(IEditorInput, String)
 * @see org.eclipse.ui.part.EditorPart
 */
public interface IEditorPart extends IWorkbenchPart, ISaveablePart {

	/**
	 * The property id for <code>isDirty</code>.
	 */
	public static final int PROP_DIRTY = IWorkbenchPartConstants.PROP_DIRTY;

	/**
	 * The property id for <code>getEditorInput</code>.
	 */
	public static final int PROP_INPUT = IWorkbenchPartConstants.PROP_INPUT;

	/**
	 * Returns the input for this editor.  If this value changes the part must 
	 * fire a property listener event with <code>PROP_INPUT</code>.
	 *
	 * @return the editor input
	 */
	public IEditorInput getEditorInput();
	
	/**
	 * Returns the site for this editor. The method is equivalent to 
	 * <code>(IEditorSite) getSite()</code>.
	 *
	 * @return the editor site
	 */
	public IEditorSite getEditorSite();
		
	/**
	 * Initializes this editor with the given editor site and input.
	 * <p>
	 * This method is automatically called shortly after part construction; it marks
	 * the start of the part's lifecycle. The 
	 * {@link IWorkbenchPart#dispose IWorkbenchPart.dispose} method will be called 
	 * automically at the end of the lifecycle. Clients must not call this method.
	 * </p><p>
	 * Implementors of this method must examine the editor input object type to
	 * determine if it is understood.  If not, the implementor must throw
	 * a <code>PartInitException</code>
	 * </p>
	 * @param site the editor site
	 * @param input the editor input
	 * @exception PartInitException if this editor was not initialized successfully
	 */
	public void init(IEditorSite site, IEditorInput input) throws PartInitException;
}