Question

In my rcp plugin i want when i export my plugin to create a folder, lets say images in the exported folder. eg my exported folder now has configuration, p2, plugins and workspace folders. I want a default folder there to store images and can referee from inside the plugin.

Answer 1

You are maybe going about this slightly incorrectly; you can package your images inside your plugin and then easily access them from code. Just create your image folder inside your plugin project and then select that folder on the “Binary Build” pane of the Build Configuration page of the plugin.xml editor.

You can then manage your images via a cache like this:

public class ImageCache 
{
    private static ImageCache s_instance = new ImageCache();
    private ImageRegistry m_imageRegistry = Activator.getDefault().getImageRegistry();

    public static enum AppImage
    {
        EXAMPLE("images/example.gif")
        ;


        public String location;

        private AppImage(String location)
        {
            this.location = location;
        }
    }

    private ImageCache()
    {
            for(AppImage image : AppImage.values())
            {               
                imageRegistry.put(image.name(),Activator.getImageDescriptor(image.location));
            }
    }

    public static ImageCache instance()
    {       
        return s_instance;
    }

    public final static Image get(AppImage key)
    {
            return instance().m_imageRegistry.get(key.name()); 
    }

    public final static ImageDescriptor getDescriptor(AppImage key)
    {
            return instance().m_imageRegistry.getDescriptor(key.name()); 
    }    
}

Where example.gif is in an images folder under the root of your plugin project.

See also: http://www.vogella.com/articles/EclipseRCP/article.html#tips_loadimages
and: http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/add-image-to-eclipse-rcp-application.html