[platform-ui-dev] Testing workbench dynamic capabilities

[Kim Horne <Kim_Horne@xxxxxxxxxx>]

If you care about testing the dynamic
plugin support in M4, read on.  If not...why not?! :)

In order to more easily test the dynamic
capabilities of the workbench I've written a plugin that allows you to
install external plugins into a running workbench.  This differs from
the update mechanism in that it directly taps into the OSGi layer - the
plugins simply appear and are loaded only for this eclipse session.  After
a restart they are removed.

The plugin installs a dropdown button
to your workbench toobar labeled "Load Plugin".  Initially,
the dropdown contains one item "Load...".  Selecting this
item will cause a directory selection dialog to appear.  From here
you can select a directory that represents an exported or built plugin
(Ie: contains a valid plugin.xml and all associated libraries).  The
plugin will then be loaded into the workbench and a new item will be added
to the Load Plugin dropdown.  The toggle state of this item indicates
whether the plugin is loaded or not.  A plugin can repeatedly be loaded
and unloaded.

This feature has a temporary update
site located at http://pookzilla.net/dynamic.  If it proves useful
for others I'll move it over to UI land.

There are plugins that are used by the
UI test suites to confirm dynamic behaviour.  They are located in
org.eclipse.ui.tests/data/ (web CVS link of http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/org.eclipse.ui.tests/data/).
 The current state of our dynamic support is located at http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/platform-ui-home/dynamic-ui/index.html.
 Please do not report dynamic-related defects against extension points
that do not have all green checkmarks.