View source for FAQ Why can't I control when, where, and how my view is presented?

Plug-in writers implementing views are often frustrated by their lack of control 
over when and how their views are presented to the user.  Common questions
include the following: 

* How do I control when users can open my view?</li>

* How do I ensure that my two views are always open at the same time?</li>

* How do I make a view appear in a floating shell or dialog?</li>

* How can I ensure that my view is a certain size?</li>

The answer to such questions is more philosophical than some plug-in writers
would like.

As an integration platform, Eclipse must balance between customizability
and conformity.  The platform needs to be customizable in order to adapt to the 
unforeseeable needs of plug-ins being integrated into the platform.  On the 
other hand, in order to provide a coherent user experience,  
components need to be presented consistently.  The ultimate goal is for the
user to perceive the end product as a coherent and self-consistent application
rather than as a collection of isolated components that don&#146;t know anything about
one another. 


The platform seeks this balance with views by giving the view implementer
limited control over how views are presented.  The view writer has control 
over the body of the view but little or no control over where the view appears
in the workbench page, what size it has, and when it is opened or closed. 
This approach prevents individual views from exerting too much control
over the rest of the workbench window.  Because the view implementer can never
foresee exactly what configuration of views and editors the end user may want
to have open, it cannot make reasonable choices about what happens beyond
its borders.  Only users are in a position to know exactly what kind of layout
they want.


Giving limited power to individual views also gives the platform the flexibility
to change its look and feel between releases without 
breaking API compatibility. For example, version 1.0 of the platform allowed 
views to float as separate shells outside the workbench window, but this 
capability was removed in version 2.0.  The API designers expose only functionality
that they are confident can be supported for the long term.


== See Also: ==

[[FAQ How do I create fixed views and perspectives?]]

<hr><font size=-2>This FAQ was originally published in [http://www.eclipsefaq.org Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs]. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the [http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html Eclipse Public License v1.0].</font>