CDT/HowTo extend CDT with custom file templates

Note: Some of the contents of this page are out of date, however it serves a useful reference with pointers for the original design considerations of various components.

HowTo extend CDT with custom file templates

In this article I give a short description how to add your own file templates to CDT. You will be able to use them in every CDT C/C++ project.

1. Create a new Eclipse Plugin project.

2. Add to the plugin following extension point: org.eclipse.ui.editors.templates

3. For a XML template file where you later define your templates you have to add an include tag in the extension point.
   An example plugin.xml file which you can use for testing looks like following:

   <plugin>
     <extension
       point="org.eclipse.ui.editors.templates">
       <include file="templates/templates.xml"/>
     </extension>
   </plugin>

4. Now create in your plugin project a folder called "templates" and put a file "templates.xml" into it.
   Of course you can use own paths and filenames if you modify the include XML tag. Also make sure that the file get included in
   the build path of your plugin.

5. After that you must edit the XML file containing your templates. In this example I create two templates,
   one for C source and one for C header files: 

   <templates>
     <template name="testC" 
       id="test.codetemplates.csourcefile" 
       description="testC" 
       context="org.eclipse.cdt.core.cSource.contenttype_context" 
       enabled="true">
       // ${file_name}
       // Test Source
     </template>
   <template name="testH" 
     id="test.codetemplates.headerfile" 
     description="testH" 
     context="org.eclipse.cdt.core.cHeader.contenttype_context" 
     enabled="true">
     // ${file_name}
     // Test Header
   </template>
 </templates>

6. OK, thats all. Now you can export the plugin project to a plugin and put it into your eclipsePath/plugin folder.
   After you restart eclipse and create a new C source/header file you can choose your template in the template field.

7. To check what possibilities you have for creating templates, have a look in plugin.xml from org.eclipse.cdt.ui.
   In the subfolder "templates" of this package you will also find the cdt template XML files.
   

PS: To use the "$" sign if it's not for a macro, use a double dollar sign: "$$"