The Workbench

The workbench is the cockpit for navigating all of the function provided by plug-ins. By using the workbench, we can navigate views and we can view content and properties of data sources.

The workbench is just a frame that can present various visual parts.

This screenshot shows the Workbench, which is displaying the JLedger Accounts perspective. The Accounts perspective has only one view, the Accounts view.

The main components of the Workbench are visible; the main menu bar, tool bar, status bar, and the shortcuts bar. The Accounts perspective occupies the area to the right of the shortcuts bar between the perspective label (the dark line at the top that displays the 'Accounts' label) and the status bar.

The Shortcuts bar is displaying two view shortcuts to the two views defined by the JLedger plugin manifest file (The Accounts view and the General Journal view). So, to belabor the point, the icons displayed in the Shortcuts view were not added by code, they were added by 'assembling' the UI elements that make up the JLedger application in the JLedger plugin configuration file.

For Illustration, here is the snippet of XML from the JLedger plugin.xml file that defines the Accounts, General Journal views and the shortcuts to them.
You can learn how to define views and shortcuts in the UIWorks Guide and the UIWorks Extension Point Reference.

<!-- views -->
<extension point="org.jlense.uiworks.views">
    <category name="&General" id="org.jledger.ui.general" />
    <view
       name="Accounts"
       class="org.jledger.ui.accounts.AccountsView"
       id="org.jledger.ui.accounts.AccountsView"
        tooltip="Chart of Accounts"
       category="org.jledger.ui.general"
       showTitleBar="false" />
    <view
       name="General Journal"
       class="org.jledger.ui.gj.GeneralJournalView"
       id="org.jledger.ui.gj.GeneralJournalView"
        tooltip="Display Transactions"
       category="org.jledger.ui.general"
       showTitleBar="false" />
</extension>


<!-- create perspectives for example applications  -->
<extension  point="org.jlense.uiworks.perspectives">

    <!-- A perspective category for the JLense exampl applications.  -->
    <category name="&JLedger" id="org.jledger.ui" />

    <perspective id="org.jledger.ui.accounts"
        name="Accounts"
        class="org.jlense.uiworks.part.StandardPerspective"
        icon="images/Accounts.gif"
        icon32="images/Accounts32.gif"
        category="org.jledger.ui"
        availableAsShortcut="true"
        />

    <perspective id="org.jledger.ui.gj"
        name="General Journal"
        class="org.jlense.uiworks.part.StandardPerspective"
        icon32="images/GeneralJournal32.gif"
        icon="images/GeneralJournal.gif"
        category="org.jledger.ui"
        availableAsShortcut="true"
        />

</extension>

      

Context Menus

This screenshot shows the Accounts view's context menu. The important thing to realize here is that this context menu is not managed by the JLedger application code but is instead managed by the JLense Workbench. The Workbench has contributed the 'Open' and 'Delete' menu items to this menu.

Plugins may contribute new menu items to context menus by declaring them in thier plugin.xml files.

Here is the extension declaration from the JLense-UIWorks plugin that declares the 'Open' menu item for context menus...

  <extension point="org.jlense.uiworks.popupMenus">
    <objectContribution objectClass="org.jlense.uiworks.action.IOpenable" >
    <action
          id="org.jlense.uiworks.open.selected"
          menubarPath="new.ext"
          label="&Open@Ctrl+O"
          tooltip="Open the selected item"
          helpContextId="org.jlense.uiworks.open.selected"
          icon="icons/full/ctool16/open.gif"
          class="org.jlense.uiworks.action.OpenSelectedActionDelegate"
          enablesFor="+">
    </action>
     </objectContribution>
  </extension>
      

Wizards

A wizard is a workbench window or dialog that performs some task. A wizard may be a modal dialog or a workbench window displayed as a separate frame. Wizards may consist of a single page, a multi-paged dialog, or a tabbed dialog.

The wizards in the JLedger application are typically a single page application window that edits some JLedger application object. The screenshot above shows the Account wizard editing a particular account. This window is displayed when a user selects an Account from the account list and chooses to 'Open' the selected account. The Account wizard is displayed as a separate application window with it's own toolbars and menus. This is very similar to the way Microsoft Outlook works when an e-mail message or a calendar item is selected for editing.

Main Menu

The Workbench's main menu is managed by the JLense Workbench in much the same way as the Workbench manages context menus. The Workbench itself has contributed the 'Delete' menu item to this menu.

Wizards

This screenshot shows the 'New' Wizard. The New Wizard contains sub wizards for creating new application objects. Plugins may add thier own new wizards by declaring then in thier plugin.xml file.

The two wizards shown in the dialog above were added to the Workbench by the JLedger plugin.

Here is the XML snippet that declared the two wizards...

        <extension point="org.jlense.uiworks.newWizards">
            <category name="General" id="org.jledger.ui.general" />
            <wizard
                id="org.jledger.ui.accounts.AccountWizard"
                name="Account"
                availableAsShortcut="true"
                class="org.jledger.ui.accounts.AccountWizard:-wizardType new"
                category="org.jledger.ui.general"
                icon="images/NewAccount.gif"
                perspectiveID="org.jlense.uiworks.FormPerspective">
                    <description>%new.account.wizard.description</description>
                    <parameter name="wizard.type" value="new" />
            </wizard>
            <wizard
                id="org.jledger.ui.gj.TransactionWizard"
                name="General Journal Entry"
                availableAsShortcut="true"
                class="org.jledger.ui.gj.TransactionWizard:-wizardType new"
                category="org.jledger.ui.general"
                icon="images/NewTransaction.gif"
                perspectiveID="org.jlense.uiworks.FormPerspective">
                    <description>%new.transaction.wizard.description</description>
                    <parameter name="wizard.type" value="new" />
            </wizard>
        </extension>
      

Preferences

The workbench provides an Options dialog that can display preference pages for all plugins. Plugins add new preference pages to the Workbench Options dialog by declaring the extensions in thier plugin.xml files.

The image above shows the Workbench Options dialog displaying a single preference page. The single preference page, labeled 'General', was contributed by the JLedger plugin. Here is the XML snippet that declared the preference page...

            <extension point="org.jlense.uiworks.preferencePages">
               <page name="General"
                   class="org.jlense.uiworks.preference.GeneralPreferencePage"
                     id="org.jlense.uiworks.GeneralPreferencePage" />
            </extension>

      

Workbench

We've been using the term workbench loosely to refer to "that window that opens when you start the platform." Let's drill down a little and look at some of the visual components that make up the workbench.

When we use the term workbench, we are referring to the workbench window (IWorkbenchWindow). The workbench window is the top-level window in a workbench. It is the frame that holds the menu bar, tool bar, status line, and pages. In general, you don't need to program to the workbench window. You just want to know that it's there.

Note: You can open multiple workbench windows; however each workbench window is a self-contained world of pages and views.

From the user's point of view, a workbench contains views. There are a few other classes used to implement the workbench window.

Page

Inside the workbench window, you'll find one page (IWorkbenchPage) that in turn contains parts. Pages are an implementation mechanism for grouping parts. You typically don't need to program to the page, but you'll see it in the context of programming and debugging.

Views

Views are built according to a common lifecycle.

• You implement a createPartControl method to create the Swing widgets that represent your visual component. You must determine which widgets to use and create any related UI elements needed to display your view.
• When your view is given focus, the JComponent.requestDefaultFocus will be called on the component that is returned from the createPartControl method so that you can set the focus to the correct widget.

Throughout this lifecycle, events will fire from the containing workbench page to notify interested parties about the opening, activation, deactivation, and closing of views.

Seem simple? It can be. That's the beauty of workbench views. They're just widget holders, and can be as simple or complex as you need them to be.