Launch Shortcuts

Identifier:

org.eclipse.debug.ui.launchShortcuts

Description:

This extension point provides support for selection sensitive launching. Extensions register a shortcut which appears in the run and/or debug cascade menus to launch the workbench selection or active editor.

Configuration Markup:

<!ELEMENT extension (shortcut*)>

<!ATTLIST extension

point CDATA #REQUIRED

id CDATA #IMPLIED

name CDATA #IMPLIED>

point - a fully qualified identifier of the target extension point
id - an optional identifier of the extension instance
name - an optional name of the extension instance

<!ELEMENT shortcut (perspective* , contextualLaunch? , enablement? , configurationType* , description*)>

<!ATTLIST shortcut

id CDATA #REQUIRED

modes CDATA #REQUIRED

class CDATA #REQUIRED

label CDATA #REQUIRED

icon CDATA #IMPLIED

category IDREF #IMPLIED

helpContextId CDATA #IMPLIED

path CDATA #IMPLIED

description CDATA #IMPLIED>

id - specifies a unique identifier for this launch shortcut.
modes - specifies a comma-separated list of modes this shortcut supports.
class - specifies the fully qualified name of a class which implements org.eclipse.debug.ui.ILaunchShortcut. New in 3.4, clients can implement org.eclipse.debug.ui.ILaunchShortcut2 to participate in context sensitive launching of resource and non-resource based artifacts.
label - specifies a label used to render this shortcut.
icon - specifies a plugin-relative path to an image used to render this shortcut. Icon is optional because it is up to other plugins (i.e. Views) to render it.
category - specifies the launch configuration type category this shortcut is applicable for. When unspecified, the category is null (default).
helpContextId - an optional identifier that specifies the help context to associate with this launch shortcut
path - an optional menu path used to group launch shortcuts in menus. Launch shortcuts are grouped alphabetically based on the path attribute, and then sorted alphabetically within groups based on the label attribute. When unspecified, a shortcut appears in the last group. This attribute was added in the 3.0.1 release.
description - Provides a human readable description of what the shortcut does (or will do) if the user selects it. A Description provided in this field will apply as the default description for all of the modes listed in the modes attribute. This attribute was added in the 3.3 release.

The perspective element is deprecated

<!ELEMENT perspective EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST perspective

id IDREF #REQUIRED>

The perspective element has been deprecated in the 3.1 release. The top level Run/Debug/Profile cascade menus now support contextual (selection sensitive) launching, and clients should provide a contextualLaunch element instead.

id - the unique identifier of a perspective in which a menu shortcut for this launch shortcut will appear.

<!ELEMENT contextualLaunch (contextLabel* , enablement?)>

Holds all descriptions for adding shortcuts to the selection sensitive Run/Debug/Profile cascade menus. Only objects that provide an org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ILaunchable adapter are considered for the cascade menus. The org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ILaunchable interface is simply used to tag objects that support contextual launching.

<!ELEMENT contextLabel EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST contextLabel

mode IDREF #REQUIRED

label CDATA #REQUIRED>

Specify the label for a contextual launch mode.

mode - specifies a mode from the set {"run","debug","profile"}
label - specifies the label to appear in the contextual launch menu.

<!ELEMENT configurationType EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST configurationType

id IDREF #IMPLIED>

This element allows more that one associated launch configuration type to be specified for this launch shortcut. This element was added in the 3.3 release.

id - This attribute is the identifier of an existing launch configuration type that is to be associated with this launch shortcut. This association is then used to determine what launch shortcuts apply to what types for context sensitive launching.

<!ELEMENT description EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST description

mode CDATA #REQUIRED

description CDATA #REQUIRED>

Provides a mode specific description for this launch shortcut. This element was added in the 3.3. release.

mode - A launch mode identifier this description applies to. For example, "run".
description - The desciption for this launch shortcut when invoked in the associated mode.

Examples:

The following is an example of the Java Application launch shortcut contribution with an enablement expression, an associated launch configuration type id and descriptions for run and debug mode:


 <extension point="org.eclipse.debug.ui.launchShortcuts">
  <shortcut
    label="Java Application"
    icon="$nl$/icons/full/etool16/java_app.png"
    helpContextId="org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui.shortcut_local_java_application"
    modes="run, debug"
    class="org.eclipse.jdt.internal.debug.ui.launcher.JavaApplicationLaunchShortcut"
    description="Launch a local Java application"
    id="org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui.localJavaShortcut">
    <description
     description="Runs a local Java application"
     mode="run">
    </description>
    <description
     description="Debugs a local Java application"
     mode="debug">
    </description>
  <contextualLaunch>
  <enablement>
    <with variable="selection">
     <count value="1"/>
      <iterate>
       <or>
        <test property="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.hasMain"/>
         <and>
          <test property="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.isContainer"/>
          <test property="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.hasProjectNature" args="org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature"/>
         </and>
        </or>
      </iterate>
     </with>
  </enablement>
  </contextualLaunch>
  <configurationType
    id="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.localJavaApplication">
  </configurationType>
  </shortcut>
</extension>

In the above example, a launch shortcut will be shown in the run and debug cascade menus with the label "Java Application". Furthermore, the shortcut will only appear if the selected item contains a main method or is a Java project, and has an org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ILaunchable adapter.

For more information on property testers see org.eclipse.core.expressions.PropertyTester

API Information:

Value of the attribute class must be a fully qualified name of a Java class that implements the interface org.eclipse.debug.ui.ILaunchShortcut. New in 3.4, clients can implement org.eclipse.debug.ui.ILaunchShortcut2 to participate in context sensitive launching of resource and non-resource based artifacts.

Since 3.1, the debug platform registers a command handler for each launch shortcut and its applicable modes to allow clients to define key-bindings for a launch shortcut. The command id for a handler is generated as the launch shortcut id attribute, followed by a dot and the applicable launch mode. For example, the command id for the above launch shortcut example would be com.example.ExampleLaunchShortcutId.debug for launching in debug mode. A command and key binding could be defined as follows, to bind "ALT-SHIFT-D, E" to the launch shortcut.


   <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.commands">
      <command
            name="Debug Example Launch"
            description="Debug Example Launch"
            categoryId="org.eclipse.debug.ui.category.run"
            id="com.example.ExampleLaunchShortcutId.debug">
      </command>
      <keyBinding
            keySequence="M3+M2+D E"
            contextId="org.eclipse.ui.globalScope"
            commandId="com.example.ExampleLaunchShortcutId.debug"
            keyConfigurationId="org.eclipse.ui.defaultAcceleratorConfiguration">
      </keyBinding>
   </extension>

Since 3.3, launch shortcuts can now indicate what kind of launch configuration(s) they will create using the configurationType element. In the event that a given launch shortcut can create more than one type of launch configuration, more than one type can be specified using this element.
Example:


 <extension point="org.eclipse.debug.ui.launchShortcuts">
      <shortcut
            class="MyShortcut"
            description="Launches a simple program"
            id="myShortcut"
            label="My Shortcut"
            modes="run">
         <configurationType 
          id="mylaunchtypes">
         </configurationType>
      </shortcut>
   </extension>

Since 3.3, launch shortcuts can provdie a human readable description. This is used to aid novice users during the context launching process when they are presented with a listing of launch shortcuts to choose from.
Descriptions can be provided in one of two ways:

A general description can be provided for the shortcut, which will apply to all modes that the shortcut supports
Each description can be specified for a specific mode

Example of general description which applies to run and debug modes:


 <shortcut
            class="MyShortcut"
            description="Launches a simple program"
            id="myShortcut"
            label="My Shortcut"
            modes="run, debug">
      </shortcut>
   </extension>

Example of a description for the run mode only:


 <extension point="org.eclipse.debug.ui.launchShortcuts">
      <shortcut
            class="MyShortcut"
            id="myShortcut"
            label="My Shortcut"
            modes="run, debug">
         <description
               description="Runs a simple program"
               mode="run">
         </description>
      </shortcut>
   </extension>

Supplied Implementation:

No launch shortcuts are provided by the platform. Note that although launch shortcuts do not have to be associated with a specific launch configuration type, launch shortcut menus will not appear unless there is at least one launch configuration type that supports a shortcut's launch mode(s).

Copyright (c) 2000, 2007 IBM Corporation and others.
This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v20.html/ SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0