Package com.ibm.lpex.alef.preferences

This package provides Eclipse platform preference pages for the LPEX editors.

See:
Description

Class Summary

AppearancePreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default palette, font, and editor style settings.
BlockPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default block settings.
ComparePreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default compare settings.
ControlsPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default controls settings.
FindTextPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default find-text settings.
LpexBasePreferencePage	The main page of LPEX Editor preferences.
LpexFieldEditorPreferencePage	LPEX abstract preference page that hosts field editors.
ParserAssociationsPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's parser associations.
ParsersPreferencePage	Preference page for document parser settings.
ParserStylesPreferencePage	Preference page for customization of document parser styles.
PrintPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default print settings.
SavePreferencePage	Preference page with save-related settings for one LPEX view, or default settings for the editor.
SequenceNumbersPreferencePage	Preference page with sequence-numbers settings for one LPEX view, or default settings for the editor.
SourceEncodingPreferencePage	Source encoding preference page for an LPEX document.
TabsPreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's default tabs setting.
UserActionsPreferencePage	Preference page for user actions.
UserCommandsPreferencePage	Preference page for user commands.
UserKeyActionsPreferencePage	Preference page for user key definitions.
UserMouseActionsPreferencePage	Preference page for user mouse-event definitions.
UserProfilePreferencePage	Preference page for LPEX's user profile.
ViewBasePreferencePage	The main page of preferences for an LPEX view.
ViewParserPreferencePage	Parser preference page for an LPEX view.

Package com.ibm.lpex.alef.preferences Description

This package provides Eclipse platform preference pages for the LPEX editors.

Here's a brief overview of the relation between the preference pages of the LPEX Editor and those of an LPEX-based editor provided by a solution plug-in.

1 - Workbench-scoped LPEX settings.

These are the LPEX Editor preference pages, contributed by the LPEX Editor plug-in's plugin.xml file. The settings are global in scope. They will be in effect for all the LPEX-based solutions installed in the workbench.

The current settings (default.xxx editor parameters) are stored in the LPEX Editor plug-in preferences (for example, C:\eclipse\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime\.settings\com.ibm.lpex.prefs). They modify any hard-coded values and install-profile settings shipped with the editor. The editor install profile may be extended by the using solutions plug-ins (see extendInstallProfile()). Changes in the LPEX Editor preference pages affect all the views which use the default value of these settings. Views which are set a particular value (that is, a view-scoped parameter setting), either programmatically by the solution plug-in or manually by the user, are not affected.

The "Restore Defaults" button resets the preferences of a page to the initial (usually, install) values, and may clear custom default settings. The "Reset" button restores the preferences to the value in effect when the preference page was opened.

In Eclipse, preference pages are defined via plugin.xml files, and read in before any plug-in code is run. This makes it impossible for an LPEX-based solution plug-in to contribute programmatically (via a call to an LPEX method) the LPEX preference pages (optionally inside its own). It is mainly as a result of this limitation that the LPEX Editor preference pages are in a separate category in the Eclipse "Preferences" dialog.

2 - Document-scoped LPEX settings.

These are one preference node (and subnodes) per each document opened and activated in the editor. Document-scoped preference pages are created for the primary view of each open document. LPEX adds/removes these dynamically in the Eclipse preferences dialog. These settings are only used for the current edit session of the document.

The document-scoped preferences pages may be subclassed by a solution plug-in. See createViewPreferencePage().

A solution plug-in may also contribute its own custom document-scoped preferences, in addition to the LPEX built-in ones. See createViewPreferenceNodes() and LpexViewPreferenceNode.

3 - Solution-scoped settings.

These are the solution plug-in preference pages, contributed by the solution plug-in's plugin.xml.

4 - Solution-scoped LPEX settings.

Certain LPEX-related settings may be solution-specific. The solution editor plug-in should keep the set of its own editor settings in a PreferenceStore (or similar mechanism), and use these settings when a document is opened in the plug-in. The user should be able to change these settings via the Eclipse "Preferences" dialog.

"File Open" in the above example is the (base) preference page, with file settings for an edit view opened in the particular solution plug-in. It comprises settings such as: sequence numbers, source encoding, save text limit, and save trimming of trailing blanks. It is contributed by the solution plug-in's plugin.xml. These settings are scoped to a particular solution, are stored in that solution plug-in's PreferenceStore, and are read by the solution and applied via the initializeLpexView() hook of LpexTextEditor.