/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2000, 2006 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.ui;
/**
* An editor is a visual component within a workbench page. It is
* typically used to edit or browse a document or input object. The input
* is identified using an <code>IEditorInput</code>. Modifications made
* in an editor part follow an open-save-close lifecycle model (in contrast
* to a view part, where modifications are saved to the workbench
* immediately).
* <p>
* An editor is document or input-centric. Each editor has an input, and only
* one editor can exist for each editor input within a page. This policy has
* been designed to simplify part management.
* </p><p>
* An editor should be used in place of a view whenever more than one instance
* of a document type can exist.
* </p><p>
* This interface may be implemented directly. For convenience, a base
* implementation is defined in <code>EditorPart</code>.
* </p>
* <p>
* An editor part is added to the workbench in two stages:
* <ol>
* <li>An editor extension is contributed to the workbench registry. This
* extension defines the extension id, extension class, and the file
* extensions which are supported by the editor.</li>
* <li>An editor part based upon the extension is created and added to the
* workbench when the user opens a file with one of the supported file
* extensions (or some other suitable form of editor input).</li>
* </ol>
* </p>
* <p>
* All editor parts implement the <code>IAdaptable</code> interface; extensions
* are managed by the platform's adapter manager.
* </p>
*
* @see org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchPage#openEditor(IEditorInput, String)
* @see org.eclipse.ui.part.EditorPart
* @since 1.0
*/
public interface IEditorPart extends IWorkbenchPart, ISaveablePart {
/**
* The property id for <code>isDirty</code>.
*/
public static final int PROP_DIRTY = IWorkbenchPartConstants.PROP_DIRTY;
/**
* The property id for <code>getEditorInput</code>.
*/
public static final int PROP_INPUT = IWorkbenchPartConstants.PROP_INPUT;
/**
* Returns the input for this editor. If this value changes the part must
* fire a property listener event with <code>PROP_INPUT</code>.
*
* @return the editor input
*/
public IEditorInput getEditorInput();
/**
* Returns the site for this editor.
* This method is equivalent to <code>(IEditorSite) getSite()</code>.
* <p>
* The site can be <code>null</code> while the editor is being initialized.
* After the initialization is complete, this value must be non-<code>null</code>
* for the remainder of the editor's life cycle.
* </p>
*
* @return the editor site; this value may be <code>null</code> if the editor
* has not yet been initialized
*/
public IEditorSite getEditorSite();
/**
* Initializes this editor with the given editor site and input.
* <p>
* This method is automatically called shortly after the part is instantiated.
* It marks the start of the part's lifecycle. The
* {@link IWorkbenchPart#dispose IWorkbenchPart.dispose} method will be called
* automically at the end of the lifecycle. Clients must not call this method.
* </p><p>
* Implementors of this method must examine the editor input object type to
* determine if it is understood. If not, the implementor must throw
* a <code>PartInitException</code>
* </p>
* @param site the editor site
* @param input the editor input
* @exception PartInitException if this editor was not initialized successfully
*/
public void init(IEditorSite site, IEditorInput input)
throws PartInitException;
}