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Bug 331910

Summary: Complexity of contributing to the e4 model
Product: [Eclipse Project] e4 Reporter: Lars Vogel <Lars.Vogel>
Component: UIAssignee: Project Inbox <e4.ui-inbox>
Status: CLOSED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: P3 CC: Lars.Vogel, matthiasbasler
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: PC   
OS: Windows 7   
Whiteboard:

Description Lars Vogel CLA 2010-12-06 10:20:35 EST 
After demonstrating and discussing the contribution mechanismn of e4 with some people I believe the current contribution model appears very complex compared to the old plugin.xml based model.

I personally think the following makes it complex:

1.) No pre-defined hooks to add functionality, e.g. menu:org.eclipse.ui.main.menu
2.) The number of steps required so add something to a model is significant higher then with plugin.xml
  - add a new fragement
  - add a new String Model Fragement
  - select the right element id
  - select the right feature 
  - press add ...
3.) You need to maintain a new String Fragement for each model element

Perhaps there are possibilities to simplify this?
Comment 1 Matthias Basler CLA 2011-01-06 14:28:49 EST 
Besides the objective complexity (Number of clicks) there's also the wording that is imho not optimal in the Fragment editor:

Model Fragments
  (+) Imports
  (-) Model Fragements      (<-- Note the typo!)
      [-] String Model Fragment
            Handler Contribution
      [-] String Model Fragment
            Menu Contribution
            ...

The "Model Fragment" contains "String Model Fragments"? And what should the normal user associate with "String Model Fragments"?
The programmer might be interested in the fact that a contribution concerns the menu, a toolbar or a handler, but not that it is stored as a "String". (I guess this is what this means, isn't it?)

My suggestion is (if possible):

Model Fragments
  (+) Imports
  (-) Contributions
      [-] Handler Contribution       (<-- Pre-defined categories)
      [-] Menu Contribution

No matter what is created "behind the scenes", clutter such as "String Model Fragment" should imho be removed from the UI.
Comment 2 Lars Vogel CLA 2012-07-19 13:27:15 EDT 
We renamed the labels in the editor. Please open new bugs in case you see other issues.