2.7 PDE Views
The Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) provides several views for inspecting various aspects of plug-ins. To open the various PDE views, select Window > Show View > Other...; in the Show View dialog, expand both the PDE and PDE Runtime categories.
2.7.1 The Plug-in Registry view
The Plug-in Registry view displays a tree view of all plug-ins discovered in the current workspace (see Figure 2-24). Expanding the plug-in in the tree shows its components such as extension points, extensions, prerequisites, and runtime libraries.
Figure 2-24 The Plug-in Registry view.
2.7.2 The Plug-ins view
The Plug-ins view shows a tree list of external plug-ins and plug-in projects in the current workspace and provides a quick way to review plug-ins that already exist (see Figure 2-25). In the tree, you can expand each external plug-in to browse the files located in the plug-in directory. Unfortunately, if that plug-in is contained in a JAR file rather than a directory (new in Eclipse 3.1), the files are not displayed in this view (see Bugzilla entry 89143 at bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=89143). Double-clicking on a file element opens that file in an editor for viewing, and there are several useful actions in the context menu such as Add to Java Search (see Section 1.6.2.1, Java Plug-in Search, on page 32), Find References and Open Dependencies.
Figure 2-25 The Plug-ins view.
2.7.3 The Plug-in Dependencies view
The Plug-in Dependencies view shows a hierarchy of which plug-ins are dependent on which other plug-ins, which in turn are dependent on other plug-ins, and so on (see Figure 2-26). When the view opens, first right-click on the com.qualityeclipse.favorites plug-in and select Focus On. Double-clicking on an element in the tree opens the plug-in manifest editor for the corresponding plug-in.
Figure 2-26 The Plug-in Dependencies view.
2.7.4 Plug-in Artifact Search
In addition to the views described above, PDE provides the ability to search for extension references, extension point declarations, and plug-ins all in one place. Type Ctrl+Shift+A to open the PDE search dialog (see Figure 2-27), then enter the plug-in ID to filter the list. The dialog also includes filters for extensions and extension points to help you quickly and easily find what you are looking for.
Figure 2-27 PDE Plug-in Artifact dialog.
2.7.5 Plug-in Spy
To find more information about the currently selected user interface element, open the Plug-in Spy (see Figure 2-28) by pressing Alt+Shift+F1. The Plug-in Spy (also known as the PDE Spy) currently provides information about selections, editors, views, dialogs, preference pages, and wizards. When reviewing the information provided by the Plug-in Spy, clicking on the various hyperlinks opens the Plug-in Manifest editor on that plug-in.
Figure 2-28 Plug-in Spy popup.