Re: [platform-ui-dev] Using Activities for Basic and Advanced mode.

[Tod Creasey <Tod_Creasey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Activites are a filter on functionality in your entire Eclipse install 
(i.e. in the SDK it is applied to Java, PDE, Debug etc) . Anyone who uses 
your plug-in will have to absorb your activities in thier product if you 
define it there so you may find that a more fine grained solution (like a 
preference) might suit you better.

Here are some things to consider:
1) Is what you want a mode your code is going to check or are you trying 
to remove views, editors and wizards that are only interesting to the more 
experienced user? Activities are activated progressively so if it is a 
filter for beginners you are after this is a good choice. If it is a flag 
your code is going to check you may want to go with a preference.

2) Is your code referring to the activities API or are you letting us do 
the work? If you do not use the Activities API I would recommend defining 
your activities at the product level.

3) We have an example plugin.xml for Eclipse on the Platform-UI proposals 
page - see 
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/platform-ui-home/docs.html. 
We have an example plugin.xml there with some documentation.

4) As far as design considerations go think about what activities are on 
by default and how you want to group your functionality so that the user 
has everything they need at all times while still filtering what they 
don't need.

Hope this helps 

Tod






"Ryan Cox" <RLCOX@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: platform-ui-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
01/14/2004 07:17 PM
Please respond to platform-ui-dev

 
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        Subject:        [platform-ui-dev] Using Activities for Basic and Advanced mode.



I'm new to Eclipse, so forgive me if this isn't the right place to post
this question...

We need a way for our Perspective in Eclipse to have different modes
(ie. basic, intermediate, advanced). I'm wondering if Activities in the
3.0 platform will give us the functionality that we need. It appears
that they will, but I'm not finding a whole lot of information on them.
I have a few questions about Activities...

1) Are Activities the right way to implement the different user modes?
2) Are there any examples of Activities setup and working?
3) We are coding our perspective now, what design considerations need
to be made to use Activities when they are fully implemented? 

Thanks!

Ryan Cox
Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net business solutions
http://www.novell.com 


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