# Activities

###### Identifier:

org.eclipse.ui.activities

###### Since:

3.0

###### Description:

The `org.eclipse.ui.activities` extension point is used to declare activities and associated elements. Activities are used by the platform to filter certain plugin contributions from the users view until such a time that they express interest in them. This allows Eclipse to grow dynamically based on the usage pattern of a user.

###### Configuration Markup:

<!ELEMENT extension (activity , activityRequirementBinding , activityPatternBinding , category , categoryActivityBinding , defaultEnablement)*>

<!ATTLIST extension

id CDATA #IMPLIED

name CDATA #IMPLIED

point CDATA #REQUIRED>

- id - an optional identifier of the extension instance
- name - an optional name of the extension instance
- point - a fully qualified identifier of the target extension point

<!ELEMENT activity (enabledWhen?)>

<!ATTLIST activity

description CDATA #IMPLIED

id CDATA #REQUIRED

name CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to define activities. If more than one of these elements exist with the same `id` attribute, only the last declared element (in order of reading the registry) is considered valid.

- description - a translatable short description of this activity for display in the UI
- id - the unique identifier of this activity
- name - the translatable name of this activity for display in the UI

<!ELEMENT activityRequirementBinding EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST activityRequirementBinding

requiredActivityId IDREF #REQUIRED

activityId IDREF #REQUIRED>

This element allows one to bind activities to activities. The relationship is such that if the activityId is ever enabled then the requiredActivityId is enabled as well.

- requiredActivityId - the unique identifier of required activity to bind
- activityId - the unique identifier of the activity to bind

<!ELEMENT activityPatternBinding EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST activityPatternBinding

activityId IDREF #REQUIRED

pattern CDATA #REQUIRED

isEqualityPattern (true | false) >

This element allows one to bind activities to patterns.

- activityId - the unique identifier of the activity to bind
- pattern - the pattern to be bound. Patterns are regular expressions which match unique identifiers. Please see the Java documentation for `java.util.regex.Pattern` for further details.
- isEqualityPattern - if the pattern should be considered "as is". This is an optional attribute and if ommited the value is false If this is false the pattern string will be compiled into a regular expression when determining whether or not a given identifier matches the pattern. If this is true, a direct equality comparison is performed instead. Since 3.4

<!ELEMENT category EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST category

description CDATA #IMPLIED

id CDATA #REQUIRED

name CDATA #REQUIRED>

This element is used to define categories. If more than one of these elements exist with the same `id` attribute, only the last declared element (in order of reading the registry) is considered valid.

- description - a translatable short description of this category for display in the UI
- id - the unique identifier of this category
- name - the translatable name of this category for display in the UI

<!ELEMENT categoryActivityBinding EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST categoryActivityBinding

activityId IDREF #REQUIRED

categoryId IDREF #REQUIRED>

This element allows one to bind categories to activities.

- activityId - the unique identifier of the activity to bind
- categoryId - the unique identifier of the category to bind

<!ELEMENT defaultEnablement EMPTY>

<!ATTLIST defaultEnablement

id IDREF #REQUIRED>

This element allows one to specify that a given activity should be enabled by default.

- id - the unique identifier of the activity

<!ELEMENT enabledWhen (not | and | or | instanceof | test | systemTest | equals | count | with | resolve | adapt | iterate | reference)>

Contains a core expression used by the workbench handler proxy to determine when this handler is enabled without loading it.

###### Examples:

The following is an example of several activity and category definitions as well as associated bindings.

     <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.activities">
      <activity id="com.xyz.Activity"
          description="Filters contributions from com.xyz"
       name="My Activity" />

      <activity id="com.xyz.OtherActivity"
          description="Filters other contributions from com.xyz"
       name="My Other Activity" />
      <!-- other activity requires activity -->
      <activityRequirementBinding activityId="com.xyz.OtherActivity"
       requiredActivityId="com.xyz.Activity" />
      <category id="com.xyz.Category"
       description="com.xyz Activities"
       name="My Category" />

         <!-- put the activity in the category -->
      <categoryActivityBinding activityId="com.xyz.Activity"
       categoryId="com.xyz.Category" />

         <!-- bind all contributions from plugin com.xyz -->
      <activityPatternBinding id="com.xyz.Activity"
       pattern="com\.xyz/.*" />

      <!-- bind my.contribution from plugin com.xyz.other -->
      <activityPatternBinding id="com.xyz.OtherActivity"
       pattern="com\.xyz\.other/my.contribution" />

      <!-- the same, but not with a regular expression, since the pattern
              should match the id exactly anyway -->
      <activityPatternBinding id="com.xyz.OtherActivity"
       isEqualityPattern="true"
       pattern="com.xyz.other/my.contribution" />

      <!-- our activity should be enabled by default -->
      <defaultEnablement id="com.xyz.Activity" />
     </extension>

###### API Information:

There is currently no public API for declaring activities or associated elements other than this extension point. The state of activities in the workbench is accessible via `org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbench.getActivitySupport()`. From here you may query and update the set of currently enabled activities.

###### Supplied Implementation:

There are no "default activities" provided by the workbench. Activities are intended to be defined at the product level, such as the Eclipse SDK, so as to tightly integrate all of the (known) components that product contains.

Copyright (c) 2000, 2005 IBM Corporation and others.
All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html