RC0711 - Development of an RCP Application

Goal

To be able to develop an RCP application ground-up.

Duration

3 days

Prerequisites

Content

  • The architecture of the Eclipse platform. This is a basic walk-through of all the central concepts of the Eclipse platform and how these fit together. This includes the following concepts: the OSGi framework, Eclipse plug-ins, features, products and fragments, extension points, and the start-up sequence.
  • Development Environment. There are a number of issues when developing RCP application compared with all other plug-in development. These differences are described in this lesson.
  • The generic RCP application. A detailed walk-through of the anatomy of an RCP application such as the actionbar, the toolbar, the status line, editors, views, perspectives, products and branding.
  • The Code of the Basic RCP application. A detailed walk-through of the code that makes up the skeleton of a basic RCP application. This includes the basics for advisors and perspectives. This lesson also describes the basics of how to launch and debug an RCP application.
  • Adding Functionality to an RCP application. A description of how to add editors, views, actions and key bindings to an RCP application.
  • Supporting preferences. This is a description of how preferences can be supported in an RCP application. This includes a description of how to add a login dialog to an RCP application.
  • Branding an RCP application. This is description of what aspects of an RCP application that can be branded and a walk-through of the basic steps that must be performed to brand an RCP application.
  • Adding help and introduction for an RCP application. This is a description of how help can be supported in an RCP application including how context sensitive help can be handled. It is also a description of how an introduction screen can be added to the application to help users starting with the application.
  • Updating the application. This is a description of how to add update support to an RCP application including how to effectively support an update site.

Style

The course is a mixture of theory and practice and is divided into a number of lessons. Each lesson contains

  • A detailed theoretical walk-though of all the concepts and terms of the lesson.
  • A practical case where the gained knowledge from the subject is used.
  • A list of sources for additional information on the subject of the lesson.