eclipse-plugin Getting started with eclipse-plugin Hello World

Example

To create a Hello World plug-in for Eclipse, click: File ➜ New ➜ Other...

Select Plug-in Project and click Next >

The New Plug-in Project wizard will guide you through the options for creating a new plug-in.

Enter a project name (like HelloWorld), and click Next >

On the Content page, you can set the ID, Version, Name and Vendor of the plug-in.

The Version will be 1.0.0.qualifier by default. You can leave this as-is, but it is better to change this to something meaningful. The eclipse wiki recommends a syntax like vYYYYMMDD (year, month day).

On the Templates page, you can choose to create you plug-in from any template by selecting it and clicking Next >. Alternatively you can combine these templates by choosing Custom plug-in wizard, or to create a new plug-in without a template by deselecting the checkbox in front of Create a plug-in using one of the templates.

For the Hello, World Command template, there are additional settings: the package name, Handler class name and the text for the message box.

When the plug-in is created, you can run it by right-clicking the plugin.xml ➜ Run As ➜ Eclipse Application

This will launch a new instance of Eclipse (with its own workspace) that will have your plug-in loaded.

This Hello World plug-in will have made 3 contributions to the Eclipse GUI:

1. A Sample Menu (with Sample Command):

Plugin.xml:

<extension
      point="org.eclipse.ui.menus">
   <menuContribution
         locationURI="menu:org.eclipse.ui.main.menu?after=additions">
      <menu
            label="Sample Menu"
            mnemonic="M"
            id="HelloWorld.menus.sampleMenu">
         <command
               commandId="HelloWorld.commands.sampleCommand"
               mnemonic="S"
               id="HelloWorld.menus.sampleCommand">
         </command>
      </menu>
   </menuContribution>
</extension>

2. A toolbar icon:

Plugin.xml:

<extension
      point="org.eclipse.ui.menus">
   <menuContribution
         locationURI="toolbar:org.eclipse.ui.main.toolbar?after=additions">
      <toolbar
            id="HelloWorld.toolbars.sampleToolbar">
         <command
               commandId="HelloWorld.commands.sampleCommand"
               icon="icons/sample.gif"
               tooltip="Say hello world"
               id="HelloWorld.toolbars.sampleCommand">
         </command>
      </toolbar>
   </menuContribution>
</extension>

3. A key shortcut (Ctrl+6)

Plugin.xml:

<extension
      point="org.eclipse.ui.bindings">
   <key
         commandId="HelloWorld.commands.sampleCommand"
         contextId="org.eclipse.ui.contexts.window"
         sequence="M1+6"
         schemeId="org.eclipse.ui.defaultAcceleratorConfiguration">
   </key>
</extension>

When activating any of these 3, the Handler class will be executed:

Plugin.xml:

<extension
      point="org.eclipse.ui.commands">
   <category
         name="Sample Category"
         id="HelloWorld.commands.category">
   </category>
   <command
         name="Sample Command"
         categoryId="HelloWorld.commands.category"
         id="HelloWorld.commands.sampleCommand">
   </command>
</extension>
<extension
      point="org.eclipse.ui.handlers">
   <handler
         commandId="HelloWorld.commands.sampleCommand"
         class="helloworld.handlers.SampleHandler">
   </handler>
</extension>

SampleHandler.java:

package helloworld.handlers;

import org.eclipse.core.commands.AbstractHandler;
import org.eclipse.core.commands.ExecutionEvent;
import org.eclipse.core.commands.ExecutionException;
import org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchWindow;
import org.eclipse.ui.handlers.HandlerUtil;
import org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.MessageDialog;

/**
 * Our sample handler extends AbstractHandler, an IHandler base class.
 * @see org.eclipse.core.commands.IHandler
 * @see org.eclipse.core.commands.AbstractHandler
 */
public class SampleHandler extends AbstractHandler {

    @Override
    public Object execute(ExecutionEvent event) throws ExecutionException {
        IWorkbenchWindow window = HandlerUtil.getActiveWorkbenchWindowChecked(event);
        MessageDialog.openInformation(
                window.getShell(),
                "HelloWorld",
                "Hello, Eclipse world");
        return null;
    }
}

When the Handler class is executed, MessageBox will show:

This is all the Hello World plug-in does.

If you want to create a plug-in with more functionality, you could have chosen a template that best fits your need or create a plug-in via the Custom plug-in wizard to combine these templates: