[e4-dev] First bits of Forward Compat Layer available

[Tom Schindl <tom.schindl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I've today released the first bits of a generic forward compat layer
which allows people to take advantage of the e4-Programming model in 3.x
and 4.x world.

The idea is:
* 3.x: Set up a DI-Container from Scratch using workbench-services
  => Do the same the E4Application does when starting up

* 4.x: Get access to the DI-Infrastructure of the Compat-Layer

The compat-stuff is split into 2 Bundles:
* org.eclipse.e4.tools.compat: The DI-Container implementation for
  3.x/4.0
* org.eclipse.e4.tools.services: some special services needed to e.g.
  setting the dirty state in a 3.x/4.0 and e4 world

There are currently 2 examples who are using this forward compat-layer:
* My Model Editor
* My Eclipse Translator View
  http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/eclipse-translator-view/

The Simple e4 IDE will also make use of this compat stuff so everything
written for the Simple e4 IDE would run in 4.0/3.x as well.

Now that I've explained the big picture here's how to use it:

a) Editors
==========
To implement a editor using the DI-Programmingmodel all you need to do
is to extend the DIEditorPart look like this:

----------8<----------
public class E4WorkbenchModelEditor extends
DIEditorPart<ApplicationModelEditor> {

	public E4WorkbenchModelEditor() {
		super(ApplicationModelEditor.class);
	}

	@Override
	public void doSave(IProgressMonitor monitor) {
		getComponent().doSave(monitor);
	}

	@Override
	public void doSaveAs() {
		
	}

	@Override
	public boolean isSaveAsAllowed() {
		return false;
	}

	@Override
	public void setFocus() {
		getComponent().setFocus();
	}
}
----------8<----------

b) ViewPart
===========
To implement a simple ViewPart you subclass DIViewPart like this:
----------8<----------
public class TranslatorView extends DIViewPart<TranslatorComponent> {

	public static final String ID =
"at.bestsolution.translate.view.views.TranslatorView";

	public TranslatorView() {
		super(TranslatorComponent.class);
	}
	

	/**
	 * Passing the focus request to the viewer's control.
	 */
	public void setFocus() {
		getComponent().setFocus();
	}
	
}
----------8<----------

Since @Persist got moved to a new clean bundle the above save methods
will be gone in very soon and once we have the @Focus-Annotation I can
also provide the implementation of setFocus() in the base classes.

The current 3.x DI-Container is not holding all context-services
available in a 4.0-World (e.g. currently no Logger is available) but
I'll add them step by step.

Feedback, criticism is naturally welcome.

Tom

-- 
B e s t S o l u t i o n . a t                        EDV Systemhaus GmbH
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tom schindl                                        geschaeftsfuehrer/CEO
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