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Customizing Attribute Value Editors

The CustomAttributeValueEditor extension point allows you customize the attribute value editing mechanisms in Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin. It changes the Browse button found in the attribute editors to an Edit button. When a user clicks that Edit button, your custom attribute value editor will be presented.

The

Edit button can be accessed in the following attribute editors:

The Attributes view in Author mode (when the Expand button is used to reveal an expanded panel).
The Attributes view in Text mode (when the Expand button is used to reveal an expanded panel).
The In-place Attributes Editor when invoked in Author mode.
The In-place Attributes Editor invoked in the Outline view.

How to Implement a CustomAttributeValueEditor

To implement your own CustomAttributeValueEditor, follow this procedure:

Extend the ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.CustomAttributeValueEditor abstract class.
To instruct Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin to use this newly created implementation, use either of the following methods:
1. If you have configured an extensions bundle, you can return the CustomAttributeValueEditor implementation using the ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.ExtensionsBundle.createCustomAttributeValueEditor() method.
2. Specify the CustomAttributeValueEditor in the Author custom attribute value editor individual extension in the Extensions tab of the Document Type configuration dialog box for your particular document type.

Example

The following example creates a very simple custom attribute value editor:

/**
 * A custom attribute value editor.
 */
public class MyCustomAttributeValueEditor extends CustomAttributeValueEditor {

  /**
   * @see ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.Extension#getDescription()
   */
  @Override
  public String getDescription() {
    return "My custom attribute value editor";
  }

  /**
   * @see ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.CustomAttributeValueEditor#getAttributeValue
             (ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.EditedAttribute, java.lang.Object)
   */
  @Override
  public String getAttributeValue(EditedAttribute attribute, Object parentComponent)
      throws CancelledByUserException {
    // Show an input dialog for collecting the new value
    return JOptionPane.showInputDialog
                    ("Set a new value for " + attribute.getAttributeQName() + ":");
  }

  /**
   * @see ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.CustomAttributeValueEditor#shouldHandleAttribute
                     (ro.sync.ecss.extensions.api.EditedAttribute)
   */
  @Override
  public boolean shouldHandleAttribute(EditedAttribute attribute) {
    // Handle all attributes
    return true;
  }
}

Example result: If a user were to click the Edit button in any of the attribute editors, the following dialog box would be displayed that allows the user to insert a value for the particular attribute: