Selection Plugin Extension

This type of plugin allows you to manage selections of text.

A selection plugin can be applied to both XML and non-XML documents. The plugin is started by making a selection in the editor, then selecting the corresponding menu item from the Plugins submenu in the contextual menu of Text mode.

This plugin type provides the following API:

  • SelectionPluginExtension interface - The context containing the selected text is passed to the extension and the processed result is going to replace the initial selection. The process(GeneralPluginContext) method must return a SelectionPluginResult object that contains the result of the processing. The String value returned by the SelectionPluginResult object can include editor variables such as ${caret} and ${selection}.
  • SelectionPluginContext object - Represents the context and provides four methods:
    • getSelection() - Returns a String that is the current selection of text.
    • getFrame() - Returns a Frame that is the editing frame.
    • getPluginWorkspace() - Returns access to the workspace of Oxygen XML Developer.
    • getDocumentURL() - Returns the URL of the current edited document.

Example - Uppercase Plugin

The following plugin is called UppercasePlugin and is an example of a Selection plugin.. It is used in Oxygen XML Developer for capitalizing the characters in the current selection. This example consists of two Java classes and the plugin descriptor file (plugin.xml):

  • UppercasePlugin.java:
    package ro.sync.sample.plugin.uppercase;

import ro.sync.exml.plugin.Plugin;
import ro.sync.exml.plugin.PluginDescriptor;

public class UppercasePlugin extends Plugin {
    /**
    * Plugin instance.
    */
    private static UppercasePlugin instance = null;  
    
    /**
    * UppercasePlugin constructor.
    * 
    * @param descriptor Plugin descriptor object.
    */
    public UppercasePlugin(PluginDescriptor descriptor) {
        super(descriptor);
    
        if (instance != null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Already instantiated !");
        }    
        instance = this;
    }
    
    /**
    * Get the plugin instance.
    * 
    * @return the shared plugin instance.
    */
    public static UppercasePlugin getInstance() {
        return instance;
    }
}
  • UppercasePluginExtension.java:
    package ro.sync.sample.plugin.uppercase;

import ro.sync.exml.plugin.selection.SelectionPluginContext;
import ro.sync.exml.plugin.selection.SelectionPluginExtension;
import ro.sync.exml.plugin.selection.SelectionPluginResult;
import ro.sync.exml.plugin.selection.SelectionPluginResultImpl;

public class UppercasePluginExtension implements SelectionPluginExtension {
    /**
    * Convert the text to uppercase.
    *
    *@param  context  Selection context.
    *@return          Uppercase plugin result.
    */
    public SelectionPluginResult process(SelectionPluginContext context) {
        return new SelectionPluginResultImpl(
            context.getSelection().toUpperCase());
    }
}
  • plugin.xml:
    <!DOCTYPE plugin SYSTEM "../plugin.dtd">
<plugin
    name="UpperCase"
    description="Convert the selection to uppercase"
    version="1.0.0"
    vendor="SyncRO"
    class="ro.sync.sample.plugin.uppercase.UppercasePlugin">
    <runtime>
        <library name="lib/uppercase.jar"/>
    </runtime>
    <extension type="selectionProcessor" 
     class="ro.sync.sample.plugin.uppercase.UppercasePluginExtension"/>
</plugin>