Package org.eclipse.ui

Interface IPerspectiveDescriptor

public interface IPerspectiveDescriptor
A perspective descriptor describes a perspective in an IPerspectiveRegistry.

A perspective is a template for view visibility, layout, and action visibility within a workbench page. There are two types of perspective: a predefined perspective and a custom perspective.

  • A predefined perspective is defined by an extension to the workbench's perspective extension point ("org.eclipse.ui.perspectives"). The extension defines a id, label, and IPerspectiveFactory. A perspective factory is used to define the initial layout for a page.
  • A custom perspective is defined by the user. In this case a predefined perspective is modified to suit a particular task and saved as a new perspective. The attributes for the perspective are stored in a separate file in the workbench's metadata directory.

Within a page the user can open any of the perspectives known to the workbench's perspective registry, typically by selecting one from the workbench's Open Perspective menu. When selected, the views and actions within the active page rearrange to reflect the perspective.

This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.

See Also:
Restriction:
This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    String
    getDefaultShowIn()
    Returns this perspective's preferred view to show resources when no better editor or view can be deduced from context.
    String
    getDescription()
    Returns the description of this perspective.
    String
    getId()
    Returns this perspective's id.
    ImageDescriptor
    getImageDescriptor()
    Returns the descriptor of the image to show for this perspective.
    String
    getLabel()
    Returns this perspective's label.

  • Method Details

    • getDescription

      String getDescription()
      Returns the description of this perspective. This is the value of its "description" attribute.
      Returns:
      the description
      Since:
      3.0

    • getId

      String getId()
      Returns this perspective's id. For perspectives declared via an extension, this is the value of its "id" attribute.
      Returns:
      the perspective id

    • getImageDescriptor

      ImageDescriptor getImageDescriptor()
      Returns the descriptor of the image to show for this perspective. If the extension for this perspective specifies an image, the descriptor for it is returned. Otherwise a default image is returned.
      Returns:
      the descriptor of the image to show for this perspective

    • getLabel

      String getLabel()
      Returns this perspective's label. For perspectives declared via an extension, this is the value of its "label" attribute.
      Returns:
      the label

    • getDefaultShowIn

      String getDefaultShowIn()
      Returns this perspective's preferred view to show resources when no better editor or view can be deduced from context.

      For perspectives declared via an extension, this is the value of its defaultShowIn attribute.

      Returns:
      the preferred view id, or null.
      Since:
      3.124