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Today DZone have released the latest Eclipse-based Refcard, this time covering the topic of Eclipse Plug-in Development. In this card (which I wrote myself) I explain some of the main topics that can give you a headstart in creating your own Eclipse Plug-ins including how the manifests work, and how to create your own extension points.I also point out some other useful projects that exist in the Eclipse ecosystem.
If you're thinking of using Eclipse as platform, or want to add to an Eclipse installation this card should be a good starting point for you. There are many other useful Refcardz available to Eclipse developers. Seeing as I had the chance to discuss my interest in Eclipse last time, here I'll run through some of these here, in case you've missed any.
Getting Started With Eclipse RCP
While Eclipse Plug-ins goes into detail about creating any type of plug-in for Eclipse, this refcard focusses adding UI based plug-in to Eclipse, and describes how to use the Plug-in Development Environment. As well as adding menus and dialogs this card explains how to deal with perspectives, editors and views.
Business Intelligent and Reporting Tools (BIRT) provides an Eclipse-based reporting system to integrate with your Eclipse application. It also works on standalone Java and J2EE applications. This card describes the basics to get your started with BIRT, such as the report designer, data sources and extension points.
The Eclipse Modelling Framework is one of the most popular frameworks in the Eclipse eco-system, providing an extremely useful set of tools and libraries for model-driven development. In this card, co-written with project lead Ed Merks, we explain how to generate a model, describe the Ecore model and discuss how to derive a model from annotated Java or XML Schema.
Getting Started With Equinox and OSGi
Jeff McAffer brings you through Equinox, the most fundamental part of the Eclipse platform,which provides a modular environmen based on the OSGi Framework. The refcard gives an overview of the technology, shows how to create your own bundles to run on Equinox and describes some best practices in using Equinox.
While all the previous Refcardz I listed here have been focussed on developing on the Eclipse platform, this card describes Eclipse to the novice, and is a useful shortcut reference to developers who use Eclipse as their IDE. The card functions as a concise introduction to the world of Eclipse, the terminology used in the IDE, where to get it, and where to find more plug-ins
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