The presentation framework provided by Eclipse gives you the possibility to customize the UI and the behavior of graphical elements. A good example for UI-customization is the Lotus Nodes Client “Hannover”. But what do you do If you don’t have the budget, time or the skill set to implement such an excessive UI-customization like the guys from “Hannover”? Especially for small RCP applications with a handful views and the wish that your product should not look like a “typical Eclipse Client” it is probably better to use alternative possibilities to create an individual looking RCP. The following article will give an example how to customize your UI easily without using any special framework or extension-point. (more…)

If you want to write a RCP that makes complex data-structure editable, the TableViewer with a CellEditor might becomes your first choice. It has the advantage to make a direct edit in the ui-component in which it is presented. Especially the ComboBoxCellEditor is the preferred way to select a value from a given list of items. But the use of ComboBoxCellEditors should be kept within a limit. If your application makes excessive use of this CellEditor with a heavy amount of items that can be chosen, CellEditors become a usability-nightmare. The following article describes a way how to use existing concepts in the eclipse sdk to avoid user-frustration and improve the usability of your application at the same time. (more…)