Question

I need to be able to double click on a file on the desktop and have Eclipse (or more specifically Lotus Notes) kick off my custom action, to process and display it. I’ve found

http://www.developer.com/java/other/article.php/3648736/Eclipse-Tip-Define-Custom-Content-Types-to-Identify-Your-Data-Files.htm

which describes how to setup a content type in eclipse and bind it to an editor. This is not quite what I need. We have emails stored as DXL (Domino XML), and while I can open them internally (through my custom functions), I can’t find information on how to accomplish launching them externally. I’m hoping someone has done this before.

Answer 1

I havn’t done it before but … with the help of

EclipseEnvironmentInfo.getDefault().getCommandLineArgs()

you can get at the command line arguments eclipse is started with (“org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseEnvironmentInfo” is an internal class but you can access it anyhow … at your own risk 😉 ). A quick test shows that if you start a file with eclipse, the last argument is the path to that file.

Normal startup:

-os, win32, -ws, win32, -arch, x86, -product, org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product

With file:

-os, win32, -ws, win32, -arch, x86, -product, org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product, D:\Programme\Eclipse3.5-RCP\readme\readme_eclipse.html

You can extend the extension point “org.eclipse.ui.startup” and implement “org.eclipse.ui.IStartup” to check the command line Arguments and invoke your own command.

Heres my test class:

import java.util.Arrays;

import org.eclipse.core.runtime.IStatus;
import org.eclipse.core.runtime.Status;
import org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseEnvironmentInfo;
import org.eclipse.ui.IStartup;

import test.Activator;

public class Test implements IStartup {

 @Override
 public void earlyStartup() {
  String message = "Arguments: " + Arrays.toString(EclipseEnvironmentInfo.getDefault().getCommandLineArgs());
  Activator.getDefault().getLog().log(new Status(IStatus.INFO, "Test", message));
 }

}