Description Adam Neal 2009-08-21 11:02:13 EDT

Build ID: 351I20090714

Steps To Reproduce:
Our product has a requirement to persist diagram editors such that we remember the layout and placement of the editor stack each diagram existed in.

The diagram editors we are persisting most likely will not implement the IPersistableEditor interface, and we do not have any control over this.

Also, the timing of when we need to create a memento of the editor layout is specific, it does not simply align with shut down and restart of the workbench.  Rather we need to grab a snap shot and restore it possibly multiple times throughout the workbench's lifetime.

In our case at least, we only care about persisting editors with a specific IEditorInput.

What I would like to request, is some public API, perhaps available on the workbench or the workbench page (?) that allows one to grab a snapshot/memento of the current layout of the workbench parts.

For example,

/* Each 'selected' workbench part will be added to the
 * memento such that its position in the workbench can
 * be later restored
 */
public IStatus saveState(IMemento memento, IPartSelector selector);

where:
interface IPartSelector {
  // Returns true if this part is interesting 
  // for the memento
  boolean shouldSavePart(IWorkbenchPart part);
}

/*
 * Extracts the workbench parts from the given memento and
 * will re-open them in the same layout as they were when
 * they were persisted.  
 *
 * @param forceRelocation
 *    <code>true</code> if already opened parts should be moved to the 
 *                      location specified in the memento
 *    <code>false</code> if already opened parts should not be moved
 *
 */
public IStatus restoreState(IMemento menento, boolean forceRelocation);

Note:  This is not the required API, just a suggestion...