eclipse communication framework

an eclipse technology subproject

New and Noteworthy
0.8.0 Stable Release


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New and Noteworthy for 0.4.0
New and Noteworthy for 0.5.2
New and Noteworthy for 0.5.4
New and Noteworthy for 0.6.0
New and Noteworthy for 0.6.2
New and Noteworthy for 0.7.0
New and Noteworthy for 0.7.5
New and Noteworthy for 0.7.6

ECF New Applications and Features


New Example App: Real-time Shared Text Editing


There is a new example plugin: org.eclipse.ecf.example.collab.editor. This plugin provides an example of real-time shared editing of text files. See here to download and install (see "Shared Text Editor"), and here for an explanation of how to setup and run this example application.


Add Buddy Menu Item


There is now an 'Add Buddy' menu item in the context menu for accounts in ECF buddy list view. This supports the sending of an authorization request to a propective buddy.


Change Password Menu Item


There is now an 'Change Password' menu item in the context menu for accounts in ECF buddy listview. This supports the changing of a password on XMPP servers.


Autologin for ECF Accounts


It's now possible to have ECF automatically login in to a set of accounts upon Eclipse startup. To have ECF login to a given account, simply open the ECF 'Connect' dialog and select the 'Login automatically at startup' check box before choosing OK:

The next time that you start Eclipse, this account will automatically be logged into with the given information. To remove an automatic login simply login again with the autologin check box left unselected. NOTE: the password information is stored in cleartext in the Preference store for a given workspace, and so is insecure.

ECF API Additions and Changes


New Extension Point: org.eclipse.ecf.startup


There is now a new ECF extension point org.eclipse.ecf.startup. This extension point allows plugins to be called in a separate Job during ECF startup. This so that ECF client applications can create IContainer instances and connect to remote services upon ECF startup. Extensions must implement the IECFStart interface. Upon ECF start, the startup method will be called via a separate Thread/Job. Here's an example extension definition for this extension point:

   <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ecf.startup">
      <ecfstart
            class="org.eclipse.ecf.example.collab.start.CollabStart"/>
   </extension>
      
At ECF startup time the org.eclipse.ecf.example.collab.start.CollabStart.startup method will be called by a new Job. The ProgressMonitor parameter will be non-null.


Removed unnecessary method in org.eclipse.ecf.core.events.ISharedObjectActivatedEvent


Previously, ISharedObjectActivatedEvent had a method getGroupMemberIDs(). This method is superfluous so removed from ISharedObjectActivatedEvent and implementing class org.eclipse.ecf.core.events.SharedObjectActivatedEvent.


Made IContainerEvent notifications for ISharedObjectContainer consistent


Made the IContainer event notifications include shared object activated (ISharedObjectActivatedEvent), deactivated (ISharedObjectDeactivatedEvent) consistent and added to org.eclipse.ecf.provider implementation the appropriate construction and delivery of these events via any listeners added to the IContainer via IContainer.addListener


Refactored Presence API


Refactored the interfaces in the org.eclipse.ecf.presence API, specifically in the org.eclipse.ecf.presence.chat package

Changes to IChatRoomManager

Changes to IRoomInfo

Now, the typical way to connect to a chat room is shown by this example code:
	  IRoomInfo roominfo = chatroommanager.getChatRoomInfo("roomname");
	  IChatRoomContainer chatroom = roominfo.createChatRoomContainer();
	  chatroom.connect(roominfo.getRoomID(),null);