IntroPages

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= Product Intro Pages =

PageOutline

== Welcome Pages == Eclipse provides introduction pages that are accessible via the menu {{{Help}}}, {{{Welcome}}}. They are also displayed to the user when CSS is started for the very first time.

== Universal Intro == Fundamentally, an RCP product can provide arbitrary introduction page content via the {{{org.eclipse.ui.intro}}} extension point. Refer to the online help for details.

CSS products, however, should use the Universal Intro mechanism. Instead of defining the complete introduction page content within your product, it allows other CSS plugins to also contribute intro page content. There is no need to update a custom, product-specific intro when adding or changing plugins.

To enable the Universal Intro, configure the intro extension point as follows for your product, using the correct {{{productId}}} of your product:

{{{

}}}

== How to Contribute == The following mark-up in your plugin.xml file adds a link to your file {{{doc/overview.xml}}} to the intro pages:

{{{

}}}

Consult the Eclipse online help or example files from other CSS plugin for details on the format of the intro file content.

Assuming you have a plugin {{{org.csstudio.XXX}}} and you want to provide intro content, there are two options for the location of that content:

• Within the same plugin org.csstudio.XXX.
• In a separate plugin org.csstudio.XXX.intro.

Using the same plugin is the easiest option. All users of the plugin will get the intro content. If site integrators want to disable it, they can do this via a {{{}}} section in the {{{org.eclipse.ui.intro.universal/INTRO_DATA}}}. It does, however, add a dependency to the intro plugins to your plugin.

Using a separate plugin for the intoduction makes the inclusion or exclusion of the intro content more straight forward, but adds more plugins, and is additional work. It would allow building products without universal intro or even no intro at all. In the long run, intro content in a separate plugin is probably most flexible. In the short run, it might be OK to add the intro to the existing plugin, then extract it to a separate plugin as the need arises.

== Where to Contribute == Technically, one can contribute to universal intro pages called {{{overview}}}, {{{firststeps}}}, {{{tutorials}}}, {{{samples}}}, {{{whatsnew}}}, {{{migrate}}}, {{{webresources}}}, or even define new pages.

For CSS products it is suggested to concentrate on the following:

{{{overview}}} This is where each site can publish their site-specific content:

{{{ Welcome to CSS for ... users! CSS is ... To get started, read the 'first steps' that introduce the various tools. You can also read the online help, ...

}}}

{{{firststeps}}} This is where each tool, via a separate {{{org.csstudio.....intro}}} plugin, can contribute some how-to-get-started content.

{{{whatsnew}}} This is were each site and each tool may add info about most recent changes, so users who've used CSS before can read up on what changed.

== Issues ==

=== Main Intro Screen === The layout of the Universal Intro main screen is mostly fixed. There isn't much to customize beyond a one-line title and a small icon.

=== Cheat Sheets === In principle, it would be nice to be able to link to Cheat Sheets from for example the {{{firststeps}}} section with code like this:

{{{

}}}

But that requires the plugin {{{org.eclipse.platform}}}, which in turn adds quite some intro content that is useful for Eclipse programmers but potentially confusing for CSS end-users.