Example: creating and distributing custom perspectives

Creating a custom perspective

Result

You have created a custom perspective. You can now customize the perspective to meet your needs.

Customizing the new perspective to your requirements

In this example, you need the perspective to have the CICSplex Explorer view on the left, the URIMAP, TCPIPSERVICES, and FILES views so you can see the status of the artifacts involved in hosting a file in the middle, and the Properties, Error log, and Host Connections views at the bottom. Follow this procedure to customize your perspective.

Procedure

1. Close the new copy of CICS Explorer so you can now see the WebPerspective plug-in code.
2. Navigate to the WebPerspective Java class:
   1. Select Navigate > Open Type from menu.
   2. Type "WebPerspective" and click OK. The Java code editor opens.

      

3. Scroll down until you find the addViews method, starting:

   private void addViews()

   Find a couple of paragraphs of code like this:

           IFolderLayout bottom =
               factory.createFolder(
                   "bottomRight", //NON-NLS-1
                   IPageLayout.BOTTOM,
                   0.75f,
                   factory.getEditorArea());
           bottom.addView(IPageLayout.ID_PROBLEM_VIEW);
           bottom.addView("org.eclipse.team.ui.GenericHistoryView"); //NON-NLS-1
           bottom.addPlaceholder(IConsoleConstants.ID_CONSOLE_VIEW)

   This declared a folder layout that will be docked at the bottom of the screen. The Problems and History views are added to this folder, and a placeholder for the Console view is provided so that if the Console view is opened it will automatically add itself to this bottom folder.
4. Go back to the manifest file for the WebPerspective project. In the Dependencies tab, click Add and type com.ibm.cics.core. Double-click com.ibm.cics.core.ui to add it as a dependency for your project, then save the editor.
5. Open the WebPerspective code editor and replace the addViews method with this text and save it:

       private void addViews() {
           IFolderLayout main =
               factory.createFolder(
                   "main", //NON-NLS-1
                   IPageLayout.LEFT,
                   0.75f,
                   factory.getEditorArea());
           main.addView();
       }

   You will see a red cross on the main.addView() line because a parameter needs to be passed in to addView:
   1. Click between the brackets after main.addView and type "PluginConstants".
   2. Press Ctrl + space (command + space on macOS) to show available options (known as code complete). Type "F" and select FILES_VIEW_ID.
   3. Save the file to resolve the red crosses. If you still see red crosses, try selecting Source > Organize Imports and saving again.
6. At this point you have only the Files view in your perspective. Right-click the project and run it as Eclipse application again to test it. You might not see any change because the old perspective layout is remembered in your workspace. Select Window > Reset Perspective from the menu to see the refreshed perspective:

7. Close the test Explorer and add similar main.addView lines for the URIMAPS_VIEW_ID and the TCPIPSERVICES_VIEW_ID.
8. Create the folder on the left side:
   1. copy the main IFolderLayout declaration that you started with:

              IFolderLayout main =
                  factory.createFolder(
                      "main", //NON-NLS-1
                      IPageLayout.LEFT,
                      0.75f,
                      factory.getEditorArea());

   2. Paste it in before the main folder's first line. You might get an error because the main variable has already been used. You can call this new folder navigate instead of main.
   3. Add in a navigate.addView line for the CICSPLEX_VIEW_ID. You can change the 0.75f specification for the navigate folder to 0.25f to reduce the size of CICSplex Explorer view.
   4. Start the test Explorer and reset the perspective.
9. Add a folder between navigate and main for the bottom panel with the Properties view. At this point, your addViews method will look like this:

       private void addViews() {
           IFolderLayout navigate =
                   factory.createFolder(
                       "navigate", //NON-NLS-1
                       IPageLayout.LEFT,
                       0.25f,
                       factory.getEditorArea());
           navigate.addView(PluginConstants.CICSPLEX_VIEW_ID);
   
           IFolderLayout bottom =
                   factory.createFolder(
                       "bottom", //NON-NLS-1
                       IPageLayout.BOTTOM,
                       0.75f,
                       factory.getEditorArea());
           bottom.addView(IPageLayout.ID_PROP_SHEET);
           bottom.addView("com.ibm.cics.explorer.connections_view");
           bottom.addView(IPageLayout.ID_PROBLEM_VIEW);
           
           IFolderLayout main =
               factory.createFolder(
                   "main", //NON-NLS-1
                   IPageLayout.LEFT,
                   0.75f,
                   factory.getEditorArea());
           main.addView(PluginConstants.FILES_VIEW_ID);
           main.addView(PluginConstants.URIMAPS_VIEW_ID);
           main.addView(PluginConstants.TCPIPSERVICES_VIEW_ID);
       }

Result

You have finished customizing the perspective. You can now deploy the custom perspective to other end users.

Deploying the custom perspective to end users

Now you need to distribute the new custom perspective to end users. The simplest and most robust way to do this is using an update site, in a similar way to how the CICS Tools plug-ins are distributed.

Procedure

1. To create an update site, the plug-in must be contained within a feature. Select File > New > Other from the menu to create a Feature Project. You might use this feature project to contain other custom plug-ins, so you can name it the OurCompanyCustomizations feature.
2. Click Next and select your WebPerspective plug-in from the plug-in list.
3. Click Finish. This creates a feature that contains only your new plug-in.
4. In the Package Explorer view, right-click the feature you just created and select Export
5. In the Export window, select Deployable features.
6. Select Archive file and type a filename where the new update site will be stored.

Result