Last week Prakash G.R. wrote an excellent post on Using progress bars. This is definitely a post that I’ll be referring my students to in the future. There is still one missing piece to the progress bar puzzle, though, and that is how to add the Progress View itself to your application. You might think… Continue reading Adding the Progress View to your RCP application
Category: Tips
Perspective Layouts – Programmatic vs Declarative
One issue that developers new to RCP face is whether to add UI elements programmatically or declaratively. In my experience, most initially choose the programmatic approach because it seems more familiar. You know, why mess with extension points when you can just code it up and be done with it. But it’s almost always better… Continue reading Perspective Layouts – Programmatic vs Declarative
Updated PDE Build and Test Example
I’ve just spent some time updating my example showing how to set up PDE Build and the Eclipse Testing Framework. I’ve generally cleaned things up and I’m now creating the test environment in the correct way. As a special bonus, I’ve also thrown in coverage analysis using EMMA. And before people ask, yes I have… Continue reading Updated PDE Build and Test Example
Running Unit Tests for RCP and OSGi Applications
Eclipse provides great tools for testing RCP and OSGi applications using JUnit, but there a few areas that are problematic. It’s not easy to run all the tests in a set of plug-ins. The test launcher allows you to run all the tests in a single project, but RCP and OSGi developers are usually working… Continue reading Running Unit Tests for RCP and OSGi Applications
RCP Target Platform Tips
Setting up a target platform for an Eclipse Rich Client Platform application is fairly simple. You simply download the RCP SDK, extract it to a directory, and then use the Target platform preferences page to point to the new directory. But managing target platforms over time can be more complicated, and I’d like to pass… Continue reading RCP Target Platform Tips
Why create a custom target platform?
One of the most important tips I have for beginning RCP developers is to please, please, please set up a custom target platform for your applications. As a trainer, it’s one of the first things I have students do. This is because target platforms are central to many other things we do as RCP developers,… Continue reading Why create a custom target platform?
Using FormEditor with a single page
I tried to think of a snazzier title for this post, but I’m in a literal mood I guess. So have you ever faced this problem? You want to use the FormEditor class (or it’s new subclass SharedHeaderFormEditor), but you only have a single page. Sure, you can use FormEditor with a single page, but… Continue reading Using FormEditor with a single page
Obfuscating an RCP Application
In this article I’m going to take you on a tour of the process I use to build a large-scale RCP application. Obfuscating an RCP application can seem like a big challenge, but it’s really not so bad.
Testing Plug-ins with Fragments
As Eclipse plug-in and Rich Client Platform developers, we face unique challenges in how we structure and execute our unit tests. In this article, I suggest an approach to unit testing based on Eclipse fragments that can help us overcome these challenges. If you find yourself frustrated with your current plug-in testing options, read on!
An RCP Code Encyclopedia
One suggestion I always make to developers getting started with the Rich Client Platform is to set up a research workspace containing all of the Eclipse IDE plug-ins. The Eclipse IDE (along with the PDE and JDT) is the ultimate RCP application and examining this code is the best way to learn how things should… Continue reading An RCP Code Encyclopedia