| [platform-help-dev] Product Extension for Eclipse IC/Help System? |
Howdy,
Eclipse has this notion of "extension point" that the documentation feature takes advantage of so that documentation may be added to an Eclipse Installation by merely adding a documentation plugin to the \plugins directory of the Eclipse Installation.
Eclipse also has the notion of an "extension" (or "product extension") whereby plugins are placed in an Eclipse extension directory. This Eclipse extension directory does not contain a JRE, the Eclipse engine or the fundamental plugins necessary to run the Eclipse platform. Instead, this directory contains additional plugins that may be linked to 1 or more Eclipse installations. This linking permits an Eclipse Installation to register (and use) the plugins located in the Eclipse extension directory. Typically linking is done by creating a file in the eclipse\links directory of a given Eclipse Installation. This file contains a property "file" (i.e. a Java property) which sites the specific directory within the Eclipse extension directory where the desired plugin resides.
I am curious how these two notions function together in regard to documentation plugins: is it possible for documentation plugins to be listed in an Eclipse extension directory and linked to a given Eclipse installation? Will the documentation for these plugins, listed in this Eclipse extension directory, be available via the Help System or IC? If appropriate, will these items be listed in the TOC?
I'm a newbie to Eclipse and the Eclipse mailing-lists, so please forgive me if this topic is mis-directed. Please also forgive the length of this message (I wanted to be clear- if only to myself- what is meant by "extension point" and "product extension").
Thanks!
-daryl