/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2000, 2008 IBM Corporation and others.
* All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
* are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
* which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
* http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
*
* Contributors:
* IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
*******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jface.text.information;
import org.eclipse.jface.text.ITextViewer;
/**
* An information presenter shows information available at the text viewer's
* current document position. An <code>IInformationPresenter</code> is a
* {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.ITextViewer} add-on.
* <p>
* An information presenters has a list of {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.information.IInformationProvider} objects
* each of which is registered for a particular document content type.
* The presenter uses the strategy objects to retrieve the information to present.
* </p>
* <p>
* In order to provide backward compatibility for clients of <code>IInformationPresenter</code>, extension
* interfaces are used to provide a means of evolution. The following extension interfaces exist:
* <ul>
* <li>{@link IInformationPresenterExtension} since version 3.0 introducing
* the ability to handle documents with multiple partitions</li>
* </ul>
* </p>
* <p>
* The interface can be implemented by clients. By default, clients use
* {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.information.InformationPresenter} as the standard implementer of this interface.
* </p>
*
* @see org.eclipse.jface.text.information.IInformationPresenterExtension
* @see org.eclipse.jface.text.ITextViewer
* @see org.eclipse.jface.text.information.IInformationProvider
* @since 2.0
*/
public interface IInformationPresenter {
/**
* Installs the information presenter on the given text viewer. After this method has been
* finished, the presenter is operational, i.e. the method {@link #showInformation()}
* can be called until {@link #uninstall()} is called.
*
* @param textViewer the viewer on which the presenter is installed
*/
void install(ITextViewer textViewer);
/**
* Removes the information presenter from the text viewer it has previously been
* installed on.
*/
void uninstall();
/**
* Shows information related to the cursor position of the text viewer
* this information presenter is installed on.
*/
void showInformation();
/**
* Returns the information provider to be used for the given content type.
*
* @param contentType the type of the content for which information will be requested
* @return an information provider or <code>null</code> if none exists for the specified content type
*/
IInformationProvider getInformationProvider(String contentType);
}