Eclipse Platform User Interface

This document lists all of the extension points that the Eclipse Platform User Interface makes available to tool developers. Developers may extend various aspects of the workbench, both visually and functionally.

In general, each of the extension points defined in the UI follow a simple pattern.  The extension point is defined within plugin.xml for org.eclipse.ui.  Then extensions are defined for the extension point.  These may exist in the same or other plugin.xml files.  The top level XML element for any extension may contain one or more extension declarations.  For example, an org.eclipse.ui.propertyPages extension may contain several instances of page elements. Although making one extension per subelement is not technically incorrect, we recommend grouping for consistent style. It can also improve workbench startup time because there will be fewer extensions to process.


General Extension Points

The following extension points can be used to extend various aspects of the UI, both visually and functionally: Copyright IBM Corporation and others 2000, 2002.