Building RCP with support for Eclipse projects

Question

I want to create an Eclipse RCP from our collection of already existing Eclipse plugins. We have the pecularity that in our RCP we want the user to be able to open ("import") Eclipse projects (we distribute some of our features in bundles which come in the form of Eclipse projects. These should be registered in the workspace because a model server scans for the opened projects and loads them). Also, when I open files via File->open an exception is thrown from our internal editors: File opening intentionally only is possible if you load an imported resource.

For the moment, I have gotten the RCP to work by depending on org.eclipse.core.resources and org.eclipse.ui.navigator.resources. Thereby, I can import complete Eclipse projects. However, I am unsure[1] this is the correct/"intented" way of doing it (eg the navigator view is lacking icons per default) should I rather use the CNF?

The main thing is, we have to support loading/importing Eclipse projects in our RCP. Your answer is even helpful if you know other RCPs which allow to import Eclipse projects.

Regards SuperUser

[1] http://wiki.eclipse.org/RCP_FAQ#Is_the_resources_plug-in_.28org.eclipse.core.resources.29_considered_part_of_the_Rich_Client_Platform.3F

Answer 1

If you are using org.eclipse.ui.navigator.resources then you are using the CNF (it's org.eclipse.ui.navigator).

The link you have is pretty outdated information, using the Eclipse Resources support in an RCP application will work fine (our product does it). And then if you want to package the application to work either as RCP or in an IDE environment you are one step closer. Also, despite what the link you provided says, don't be afraid to use stuff in org.eclipse.ui.ide if you need them. All you really need to be concerned about is to make sure you are only using classes that are actual Eclipse API, if you do that, then everything will work on future Eclipse versions. Anything that's public is Eclipse API unless it's marked in the Javadoc that it's not intended to be used by clients.

You should not be using the Resource Navigator as that has been deprecated and is not as general as the CNF.

As far as importing and exporting Eclipse projects with RCP, our product does that as well and it works fine.

I would say you are on the right track.