Eclipse RCP - what is the prefered way to change part?

Question

Each plugin can define its own content (via PartDescriptor) that should be added to specific location in my application (into PartStashContainer). There could be always just one Part from plugins visible in that PartStashContainer.

I can't find what is the preferred way how to achieve this. Should i somehow replace the currently visible Part with the new Part from plugin? Or just setup somehow the content of already visible Part (maybe via setContributionUri?).

I looked at EPartService. It looks it can instantiate Part according to PartDescriptor, but it has just some methods to make new Part visible. I need to add the new Part into existing PartStashContainer and possibly remove the old Part.

Answer 1

You can use EPartService and EModelService for this.

If you are only going to have one instance of a part with a particular id you can use a 'Part' in the application model as a child of the 'PartStack' and just mark it as 'not rendered'. If you want to create multiple parts with the same id you can use a 'PartDescriptor'.

If you have a 'Part' in your application model marked as 'not rendered' you can show it like this:

partService.showPart("part id", PartState.ACTIVATE);

If you want to create a part from a 'PartDescriptor' and place it in a part stack use:

@Inject
MApplication app;


MPart part = partService.createPart("part descriptor id");

MPartStack stack = modelService.find("part stack id", app);

stack.getChildren().add(part);

partService.showPart(part, PartState.ACTIVATE);

To hide a part use:

MPart part = partService.findPart("part id");

partService.hidePart(part);