- FAQ 94: What is a plug-in?
- FAQ 95: Do I use plugin or plug-in?
- FAQ 96: What is the plug-in manifest file (plugin.xml)?
- FAQ 97: How do I make my plug-in connect to other plug-ins?
- FAQ 98: What are extensions and extension points?
- FAQ 99: What is an extension point schema?
- FAQ 100: How do I find out more about a certain extension point?
- FAQ 101: When does a plug-in get started?
- FAQ 102: Where do plug-ins store their state?
- FAQ 103: How do I find out the install location of a plug-in?
- FAQ 104: What is the classpath of a plug-in?
- FAQ 105: How do I add a library to the classpath of a plug-in?
- FAQ 106: How can I share a JAR among various plug-ins?
- FAQ 107: How do I use the context class loader in Eclipse?
- FAQ 108: Why doesnt Eclipse play well with Xerces?
- FAQ 109: What is a plug-in fragment?
- FAQ 110: Can fragments be used to patch a plug-in?
- FAQ 111: What is a configuration?
- FAQ 112: How do I find out whether the Eclipse Platform is running?
- FAQ 113: Where does System.out and System.err output go?
- FAQ 114: How do I locate the owner plug-in from a given class?
- FAQ 115: How does OSGi and the new runtime affect me?
- FAQ 116: What is a dynamic plug-in?
- FAQ 117: How do I make my plug-in dynamic enabled?
- FAQ 118: How do I make my plug-in dynamic aware?
FAQ 99: What is an extension point schema?
Each extension point has a schema file that declares the elements and attributes that extensions to that point must declare. The schema is used during plug-in development to detect invalid extensions in the plugin.xml files in your workspace and is used by the schema-based extension wizard in the plug-in Manifest Editor to help guide you through the steps to creating an extension. Perhaps most important, the schema is used to store and generate documentation for your extension point. The schema is not used to perform any runtime validation checks on plug-ins that connect to that extension point. In fact, extension point schema files don’t even need to exist in a deployed plug-in.
The exact format of the schema file is an implementation detail that you probably don’t want to become familiar with. Instead, you should use the graphical schema editor provided by the Plug-in Development Environment.
Note
FAQ 85 How do I declare my own extension point?
FAQ 88 Can my extension point schema contain nested elements?
FAQ 98 What are extensions and extension points?