The Eclipse Forms API (org.eclipse.ui.forms) has been added to Eclipse 3.0. Eclipse Forms is a plug-in that exposes a set of custom widgets and other supporting classes that were before used as internal to PDE and Update components. They allow you to create polished, 'Web-like' UIs by modestly extending SWT and/or manipulating style bits, colors, fonts and other properties in order to get the desired behavior.
Read Eclipse Forms Programming Guide
and, Eclipse Forms - Wow!
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Eclipse announces new Eclipse Forms API (20 messages)
- Posted by: Dion Almaer
- Posted on: February 23 2004 10:27 EST
Threaded Messages (20)
- Yes! Yes! Yes! by ac0dr on February 23 2004 11:32 EST
- XForms Plugin by Matthew Perrins on February 23 2004 11:50 EST
- XUL Markup For Eclipse Forms - Anyone? by Gerald Bauer on February 23 2004 13:41 EST
- XUL is overkill by ted Stockwell on February 23 2004 03:54 EST
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XUL Markup For Eclipse Forms - Anyone? by Ruslan Zenin on February 23 2004 09:55 EST
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Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin by Gerald Bauer on February 24 2004 03:21 EST
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RE: Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin by Ruslan Zenin on February 24 2004 09:52 EST
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Monopoly 101 by Gerald Bauer on February 25 2004 02:28 EST
- new standard > XAML, not "XUL Alliance" by Rolf Tollerud on February 25 2004 02:49 EST
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Monopoly 101 by Gerald Bauer on February 25 2004 02:28 EST
- Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin by Todd Murray on February 25 2004 09:47 EST
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RE: Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin by Ruslan Zenin on February 24 2004 09:52 EST
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Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin by Gerald Bauer on February 24 2004 03:21 EST
- XUL Markup For Eclipse Forms - Anyone? by Gerald Bauer on February 23 2004 13:41 EST
- Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! by Eric Jain on February 23 2004 12:01 EST
- Eclipse announces new Eclipse Forms API by Rolf Tollerud on February 23 2004 15:15 EST
- How about Eclipse 2.1.x? by Sergey Smirnov on February 23 2004 18:18 EST
- How about Eclipse 2.1.x? by ac0dr on February 24 2004 07:13 EST
- Standalone application by Jose de la Fuente on February 25 2004 03:10 EST
- Standalone application by ac0dr on February 25 2004 04:31 EST
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Standalone application by ac0dr on February 25 2004 10:53 EST
- Standalone application by Jose de la Fuente on February 26 2004 02:11 EST
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Standalone application by Erik Rosares on September 21 2004 05:33 EDT
- Standalone application by Erik Rosares on September 21 2004 07:22 EDT
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Standalone application by ac0dr on February 25 2004 10:53 EST
- Standalone application by ac0dr on February 25 2004 04:31 EST
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Yes! Yes! Yes![ Go to top ]
- Posted by: ac0dr
- Posted on: February 23 2004 11:32 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
That is what I like about Eclipse, the stream of goodies just doesn't stop!! Thx Eclipse-team, you guys made my day (once more). -
XForms Plugin[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Matthew Perrins
- Posted on: February 23 2004 11:50 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
So who is going to write the XForm Plugin, we can then build form based Rich Clients specified using XForms !!
Matt Perrins -
XUL Markup For Eclipse Forms - Anyone?[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Gerald Bauer
- Posted on: February 23 2004 13:41 EST
- in response to Matthew Perrins
So who is going to write a XUL player/browser/plugin for Eclipse Forms so we can create rich clients for Eclipse using XML *on the server side*. Anyone?
- Gerald
PS: If you're interested why not join the Luxor XUL project (now licensed under an Apache 2.0-style license)?
PPS: To find out more about XUL (XML UI Language) and existing XUL dialects for Eclipse/SWT check out the XUL Alliance site online @ http://xul.sourceforge.net -
XUL is overkill[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: ted Stockwell
- Posted on: February 23 2004 15:54 EST
- in response to Gerald Bauer
Since Eclipse Forms is build on top of SWT it would already be possible to create thin-client, server-side UIs with relatively little effort using Remote SWT, http://rswt.sf.net. And RSWT doesn't force Eclipse programmers to adopt a new programming model. With RSWT you could take your existing fat-client Eclipse Forms application and turn it into a thin-client, server-side application with no code changes.
ted stockwell -
XUL Markup For Eclipse Forms - Anyone?[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Ruslan Zenin
- Posted on: February 23 2004 21:55 EST
- in response to Gerald Bauer
Good point. I guess "Luxor XUL" can have a plugin for Eclipse. This would boost XUL popularity.
BTW, is XUL going to be a standard (I mean W3C)? Looks like it is not supported by IE. Is there any good XUL plugin for IE?
Also, I have noticed that ServerSide has very poor support for Mozilla browser.
Mozilla is my preffered browser...but I cannot post reply by using mozilla (1.0.2)...only IE can show properly links... :( -
Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Gerald Bauer
- Posted on: February 24 2004 03:21 EST
- in response to Ruslan Zenin
BTW, is XUL going to be a standard (I mean W3C)?
Yes, XUL is going to be a standard. However, it's not going to be a W3C standard (for obvious reasons). It's going to be a XUL Alliance standard.
> Looks like it is not supported by IE.
If you haven't realized it yet, Internet Exploder is dead. Microsoft's next browser is - suprise, suprise - Windows Longhorn 2009 itself.
> Is there any good XUL plugin for IE?
You've got it wrong. The question to ask is "Is there any good IE plugin for Eclipse (=next-gen browser using XUL)? IE is just a HTML widget/plugin. That's it.
- Gerald -
RE: Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Ruslan Zenin
- Posted on: February 24 2004 21:52 EST
- in response to Gerald Bauer
Please don't get me wrong...but AFAIK IE has vast share on the HTML browser market....
Like it or not...if XUL is not accepted by W3C (I have no idea what "obvious reasons" you are talking about) that means that vendors unlikely to invest in this flavor of UI design (although I like the concept)
Since IE is virtually on any desktop PC already (shipped with Win) and as you mentioned will be integrated even tighter to OS, it makes sense to have a XUL plug-in for IE in order to process web content with XUL dialect...
Anyway, thanks for the information on XUL roadmap regarding standards... -
Monopoly 101[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Gerald Bauer
- Posted on: February 25 2004 02:28 EST
- in response to Ruslan Zenin
Like it or not...if XUL is not accepted by W3C (I have no idea what "obvious
> reasons" you are talking about) that means that vendors unlikely to invest in
> this flavor of UI design (although I like the concept)
If you have no clue about the "obvious reasons" allow me to help you out. Microsoft is a money machine. Why would they invest in XUL if everyone is free to use it and if it's not a Windows-only thingy? How are they going to lock you in and turn you into a cash cow? Now repeat the the same reasoning with the Microsoft-wannabes such as Apple, Adobe, Oracle, Sun, and so on that hold the W3C hostage.
Like the World Wide Web (HTML) the Rich Internet for Everyone (XUL) will repeat the Netscape story, that is, unknown startups will threaten the "established" players and their platform lock-in with new browsers and force them to adapt or die.
- Gerald -
new standard > XAML, not "XUL Alliance"[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Rolf Tollerud
- Posted on: February 25 2004 02:49 EST
- in response to Gerald Bauer
Gerald: <the Netscape story, that is, unknown startups will threaten the "established" players and their platform lock-in with new browsers and force them to adapt or die.>
That's a funny way to put it. I would rather say,
"Two guys in a garage have a good idea but unfortunately big company with lots of money and talented staff takes it up and do it the way it should be done".
:)
Regards
Rolf Tollerud -
Internet Exploder is a Eclipse Plugin[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Todd Murray
- Posted on: February 25 2004 09:47 EST
- in response to Gerald Bauer
"IE is just a HTML widget/plugin. That's it. "
You're kidding, right? IE is way more than just and HTML widget; you can you it as an XML parser, XSLT engine, XPath thingy, FTP component, etc. -
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent![ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Eric Jain
- Posted on: February 23 2004 12:01 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
I remember trying to create a PDE-like editor a couple of months ago, but somehow it never amounted to much. Now, looks like it's time for a second attempt :-) -
Eclipse announces new Eclipse Forms API[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Rolf Tollerud
- Posted on: February 23 2004 15:15 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
Simple and elegant. Eclipse has done it again. -
How about Eclipse 2.1.x?[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Sergey Smirnov
- Posted on: February 23 2004 18:18 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
In order to support both 2.1.x and 3.0 version, plugins writers have to avoid using such library. It might be better if this functionality will be released as a plugin (such as GEF, for example), but not like a part of Eclipse3.0 platform only. -
How about Eclipse 2.1.x?[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: ac0dr
- Posted on: February 24 2004 07:13 EST
- in response to Sergey Smirnov
In order to support both 2.1.x and 3.0 version, plugins writers have to avoid using such library. It might be better if this functionality will be released as a plugin (such as GEF, for example), but not like a part of Eclipse3.0 platform only.
It is a plugin, cfr first sentence of the original post. The real problem wrt use in 2.1.x is it has a dependency to "org.eclipse.core.runtime.compatibility" plugin, which is a 3.0 plugin. Also, from the quote in the "Eclipse-Powered" article one can see it is still a moving target. For the moment I think it is good to know that it exists, and only take it into consideration for future iterations of your own plugins (based on 3.0). Basically, what they announced it for is that you can experiment with it and give feedback.
there is another reason I would recommend to have a look at the latest builds (I20040219 and later): they contain the new experimental UI L&F. -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Jose de la Fuente
- Posted on: February 25 2004 03:10 EST
- in response to Dion Almaer
Can I use eclipse forms api in a standalone application using SWT? -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: ac0dr
- Posted on: February 25 2004 04:31 EST
- in response to Jose de la Fuente
Can I use eclipse forms api in a standalone application using SWT?
It only depend son SWT and JFace. I checked out the project org.eclipse.ui.forms, and added the swt.jar and jface.jar. Everything compiles, except for org.eclipse.ui.forms.internal.widgets.WidgetTest, which for some reason depends on org.eclipse.core .runtime.IProgressMonitor. If you leave out that file it works. -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: ac0dr
- Posted on: February 25 2004 10:53 EST
- in response to ac0dr
Just heared it is a bit more complicated. For standalone SWT app you cannot use anything from package org.eclipse.ui.forms.editor, since this package integrates the form API in the Eclipse workbench. So you have basically to factor out everything that is in the Editor class and write your own multipage editor support.
But creating a single standanlone form is pretty straightforward:
here is a code snippet for standalone SWT app that uses forms.
Bram's blog
What I do not like is the call to toolkit.paintBordersFor in order to get a flat look for Text widgets. -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Jose de la Fuente
- Posted on: February 26 2004 02:11 EST
- in response to ac0dr
Thanks very usefull link -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Erik Rosares
- Posted on: September 21 2004 05:33 EDT
- in response to ac0dr
The code snippet doesn't seem to work any longer...
Is it possible to give to post the snipper (or give a new link)?
Thanks! -
Standalone application[ Go to top ]
- Posted by: Erik Rosares
- Posted on: September 21 2004 07:22 EDT
- in response to Erik Rosares
The code snippet doesn't seem to work any longer...
Is it possible to post the snippet (or give a new link)?
Thanks!
This time without typos :-)