Quick start to the Eclipse form program

1. Introduction

The Eclipse form is a new feature of Eclipse 3.0.

The Eclipse form is a set of custom widgets and support classes that were used internally by the PDE and update components and have become public APIs in Eclipse 3.0.

The Eclipse form provides:

• The "Form" concept for inclusion in the content area (editor or view)

• Tool kits for managing colors, hyperlink groups, and other form appearance like SWT controls

• New layout manager with layout like HTML table

• Custom controls (hyperlinks, image links, scrollable composite, etc.) Designed for form

• Each page is a multiple-page editor for a form (just like PDE)

2. Quick Start

(1) HelloWorld example

The following example creates an empty form in the view

public class FormView extends ViewPart {
private FormToolkit toolkit;
private ScrolledForm form;
public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
　 toolkit = new FormToolkit(parent.getDisplay());
　 form = toolkit.createScrolledForm(parent);
　 form.setText("Hello, Eclipse Forms");
}
public void setFocus() {
　 form.setFocus();
}
public void dispose() {
　 toolkit.dispose();
　 super.dispose();
}
}