Question

I have an eclipse plug-in with a single view (like the eclipse helloworld-view-plugin-project). In the view-file I get an event when I want to update the view.

In this view I have a GridData in a Group with multiple labels. I have several services which register to the programe and whose status should be shown in this GridData.

Edit: In order to better show my problem I updated this post and added the whole code:

---

CreatePartControl():

public void createPartControl(Composite _parent) {
  parent = _parent;
  createContents();
  addBindings();
  makeActions();
  contributeToActionBars();
}

CreateContents():

protected void createContents() {

  // fixed
  checkIcon = //...
  errorIcon = //...
  smallFont = SWTResourceManager.getFont("Segoe UI", 7, SWT.NORMAL);

  // content
  gl_shell = new GridLayout(1, false);
  //margins, etc. for gl_shell
  parent.setLayout(gl_shell);

  final Label lblGreeting = new Label(parent, SWT.NONE);
  lblGreeting.setLayoutData(new GridData(SWT.FILL, SWT.TOP, false, false, 1, 1));
  lblGreeting.setText("Hi " + Preferences.getPreName());

  // -- GROUP YOUR STATS (show all services)
  createStatusGroupBox();
}

createStatusGroupBox():

private Group grpYourStatus = null; // outside the method for access in listener (below)

private void createStatusGroupBox() {
  grpYourStatus = new Group(parent, SWT.NONE);
  grpYourStatus.setLayoutData(new GridData(SWT.FILL, SWT.TOP, true, false, 1, 1));
  grpYourStatus.setText("Your upload status");
  grpYourStatus.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, false));

  // add message if no service is registered
  if ( r.getServiceList().size() == 0 ) {
     Label status = new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE);
     status.setText("No service registered.");
     new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE); //empty
     new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE); //empty
  }

  // add labels (status, message, name) for each registered service
  for ( IRecorderObject service : r.getServiceList() ) {
     Label name = new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE);
     Label status = new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE);
     Label message = new Label(grpYourStatus, SWT.NONE);
     message.setFont(smallFont);
     message.setLayoutData(new GridData(SWT.LEFT, SWT.CENTER, true, false, 1, 1));

     service.getServiceViewItem().setLabelsAndIcons(name, status, message, checkIcon, errorIcon); //this also sets the values of the labels (label.setText(...) via data binding)
}

---

Unfortunately, I don’t know what the right way is to update/reset it. I tried the following:

listener (which should update the view / the services-list):

r.addPropertyChangeListener(BindingNames.SERVICE_ADDED, new PropertyChangeListener() {
  public void propertyChange(final PropertyChangeEvent evt) {   
    Display.getDefault().asyncExec(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        // This "redraws" the view, but just places the whole content (generated in createStatusGroupBox()) above the other parts.
        //Display.getCurrent().update();
        //createStatusGroupBox();
        //parent.layout(true);
        //parent.redraw();

        // disposes grpYourStatus-Group but doesn't show anything then
        grpYourStatus.dispose();
        createStatusGroupBox();
        grpYourStatus.layout();
        grpYourStatus.redraw(); 
      }
    });
  }
});

I also tried the following statements (individually); all without success:

parent.redraw();
parent.update();
parent.layout();
parent.layout(true);
parent.refresh();

---

In this post I read the following:

createPartControls is that time of the life cycle of a view, where its
contained widgets are created (when the view becomes visible
initially). This code is only executed once during the view life
cycle, therefore you cannot add anything here directly to refresh your
view.

Eclipse parts typically update their content as a reaction to a
changed selection inside of the workbench (e.g. the user might click
on another stack frame in the debug view).

Unfortunately, I don’t know what to else I could try and I didn’t find anything helpful with searches… thank’s for your help and suggestions!

Answer 1

I finally found the answer (together with AndreiC’s help!):

my listener now looks like this:

r.addPropertyChangeListener(BindingNames.SERVICE_ADDED, new PropertyChangeListener() {
  public void propertyChange(final PropertyChangeEvent evt) {   
    Display.getDefault().asyncExec(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
         // remove grpYourStatus from parent
         grpYourStatus.dispose();

         // add grpYourStatus (with updated values) to parent
         createStatusGroupBox();

         // refresh view
         parent.pack();
         parent.layout(true);
      }
    });
  }
});

The rest is the same like the code above.