Disable plugin contributions in Eclipse RCP Application

eclipse, eclipse-rcp, java

Solution

Take a look at the Eclipse "Activities" API. It allows you to hide contributions based on ID.

A few links:

- http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_add_activities_to_my_plug-in%3F

- http://blog.vogella.com/2009/07/13/eclipse-activities/

- http://random-eclipse-tips.blogspot.com/2009/02/eclipse-rcp-removing-unwanted_02.html

- http://help.eclipse.org/helios/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/workbench_scalability.htm

Problem

I frequently had this problem and didn't find a solution yet: Whenever I write a new Eclipse RCP based application and include plugins from the Eclipse platform, I 'inherit' UI contributions from some of those plugins. Most of this contributions (menu entries, keyboard shortcuts, property pages) are useful but sometimes I'd rather disabled some of these contributions, just because I really do not need them and they might confuse the users. Does anyone know of the official or a practical way to disable/prohibit selected contributions in Eclipse RCP applications?

Original source