Java Doc for IEditorInput.java in  » IDE-Eclipse » ui-workbench » org » eclipse » ui » Java Source Code / Java DocumentationJava Source Code and Java Documentation

Clients implementing this editor input interface should override Object.equals(Object) to answer true for two inputs that are the same. The IWorbenchPage.openEditor APIs are dependent on this to find an editor with the same input.

Clients should extend this interface to declare new types of editor inputs.

An editor input is passed to an editor via the IEditorPart.init method. Due to the wide range of valid editor inputs, it is not possible to define generic methods for getting and setting bytes.

Editor input must implement the IAdaptable interface; extensions are managed by the platform's adapter manager.

Please note that it is important that the editor input be light weight. Within the workbench, the navigation history tends to hold on to editor inputs as a means of reconstructing the editor at a later time. The navigation history can hold on to quite a few inputs (i.e., the default is fifty). The actual data model should probably not be held in the input.

This method is primarily used to determine if an editor input should appear in the "File Most Recently Used" menu.

Note: although a null return value has never been permitted from this method, there are many known buggy implementations that return null. Clients that need the image for an editor are advised to use IWorkbenchPart.getImage() instead of IEditorInput.getImageDescriptor(), or to recover from a null return value in a manner that records the ID of the problematic editor input.

This method is primarily used to determine if an editor input should appear in the "File Most Recently Used" menu. An editor input will appear in the list until the return value of exists becomes false or it drops off the bottom of the list. true if the editor input exists;false otherwise

Note: although a null return value has never been permitted from this method, there are many known buggy implementations that return null. Clients that need the image for an editor are advised to use IWorkbenchPart.getImage() instead of IEditorInput.getImageDescriptor(), or to recover from a null return value in a manner that records the ID of the problematic editor input. Implementors that have been returning null from this method should pick some other default return value (such as ImageDescriptor.getMissingImageDescriptor()).

For instance, when the input is from a file, the return value would ordinarily be just the file name. the name string; never null;