Commands and toolbars

3.1. Overview

You can add commands to the application toolbar and to a view toolbar.

Tip

You can define the relative position of a command via using the pattern ?before=id or ?after=id. The id can be an existing separator name, menu ID, or item ID. The command will then be placed before or after the element with the corresponding id.

3.2. Application toolbar (coolbar)

Create a new project "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar". Use the "RCP application with a view" as a template.

Create a command "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.Hello" with the default handler "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.handler.Hello".

    
package de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.handler;

import org.eclipse.core.commands.AbstractHandler;
import org.eclipse.core.commands.ExecutionEvent;
import org.eclipse.core.commands.ExecutionException;
import org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.MessageDialog;
import org.eclipse.ui.handlers.HandlerUtil;

public class Hello extends AbstractHandler {

 @Override
 public Object execute(ExecutionEvent event) throws ExecutionException {
  MessageDialog.openInformation(HandlerUtil.getActiveWorkbenchWindow(
    event).getShell(), "Info", "Info for you");
  return null;
 }

}


   

Add a menucontribution to the "org.eclipse.ui.menus extension" point. Set the location URI to "toolbar:org.eclipse.ui.main.toolbar". Add a toolbar to your menu contribution.

Add the command "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.Hello" to the toolbar. Assign a label and an icon to it.

Activate the application toolbar via ApplicationWorkbenchWindowAdvisor.java and set the configurer.setShowCoolBar(true); (

    
package de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar;

import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Point;
import org.eclipse.ui.application.ActionBarAdvisor;
import org.eclipse.ui.application.IActionBarConfigurer;
import org.eclipse.ui.application.IWorkbenchWindowConfigurer;
import org.eclipse.ui.application.WorkbenchWindowAdvisor;

public class ApplicationWorkbenchWindowAdvisor extends WorkbenchWindowAdvisor {

 public ApplicationWorkbenchWindowAdvisor(
   IWorkbenchWindowConfigurer configurer) {
  super(configurer);
 }

 public ActionBarAdvisor createActionBarAdvisor(
   IActionBarConfigurer configurer) {
  return new ApplicationActionBarAdvisor(configurer);
 }

 public void preWindowOpen() {
  IWorkbenchWindowConfigurer configurer = getWindowConfigurer();
  configurer.setInitialSize(new Point(400, 300));
  configurer.setShowStatusLine(false);
  configurer.setShowCoolBar(true);
  configurer.setTitle("RCP Application");
 }
}

   

The result should look like the following:

3.3. Contribution to the View Toolbar

You can also add a command directly to a view toolbar. For this we will extend the previous example.

Change Perspective.java to the following (a standalone view does not have a own toolbar).

    
package de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar;

import org.eclipse.ui.IPageLayout;
import org.eclipse.ui.IPerspectiveFactory;

public class Perspective implements IPerspectiveFactory {

 public void createInitialLayout(IPageLayout layout) {
  String editorArea = layout.getEditorArea();
  layout.setEditorAreaVisible(false);
  layout.setFixed(true);

  layout.addView(View.ID, IPageLayout.LEFT, 1.0f, editorArea);
 }

}

   

Create a new menu contribution to the extension point "org.eclipse.ui.menus" with the locationURI: "toolbar:de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.view".

Tip

toolbar tells the system to add it to the toolbar while the second argument is the id of your view

Create then a new command for this menucontribution and set the command id to "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.Hello". Assign the label "Say Hello" to it.

Run the application to see your new view contribution.

3.4. Drop down list

The following adds a dropdown list to the application coolbar.

This creation is a bit strange. You create a helper drop-down command to which later the other (real) commands will be assigned to.

Therefore create a command with the id "referenceToMenuId". Maintain also the default handler. For exapmle you could re-use "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.handler.Hello".

Add a new menucontribution to the "org.eclipse.ui.menus" extension point. Set the location URI to "toolbar:org.eclipse.ui.main.toolbar". Add a toolbar to this extension and a new command to this new toolbar. As the id use "referenceToMenuId" give it a label and an icon and change the style to "pulldown".

Create a new menucontribution and set the locationURI to: "menu:referenceToMenuId"

Tip

referenceToMenuId is the ID we used earlier in the command.

Add your exiting command "de.vogella.rcp.intro.commands.toolbar.Hello" two times to this menu. Use different labels.

Run your application, it should now have a drop-down list in the application toolbar.

Tip

Add the command "referenceToMenuId" to your exiting view toolbar contribution to get the drop-down menu also in your view.