TagSEA New and Noteworthy

Tags for Software Engineering Activities in Eclipse

New and Noteworthy in 0.6.0

Core
Core UI
Resource Waypointing
Extras

Core

Improved plugin architecture	There are now two ways of describing waypoint types: Functional Waypoints: These are the waypoints extensions that were introduced in version 0.6.0. They allow clients to implement waypoints with data attributes and user interface functionality. Waypoint Interfaces: Used to define data attributes only. No functionality or user interface support is supplied for them. They are simply used as "parent types" for concrete functional waypoints. This way, clients can guarantee that certain attributes are available on their waypoints without cluttering up the UI or their code base. Waypoint Interfaces cannot have parents themselves. Waypoint interfaces are contributed using the `net.sourceforge.tagsea.waypoint` extension point and using the `interface` element. The platform will automatically create a `WaypointInterface` object that represents the extension and can be used to query things like attribute names and types for the interface. Both `WaypointInterface` and `AbstractWaypointDelegate` now implement the `IWaypointType` interface and can be retrieved through the new API method `TagSEAPlugin.getDefault().getWaypointTypes`. All previous API still remains.

Improved tag/waypoint change support	It is now possible to nest TagSEAOperations inside eachother. Previously, if you ran a TagSEAOperation as a blocking call within another operation, deadlock would occurr. The Platform now handles this case and allows the operation to run. Waypoint and Tag change events are deferred to the end of the top-level operation.

Core UI

Improved waypoint filtering	The waypoint viewer can now filter based on waypoint type. Clients also have the option of contributing filtering ui for their waypoints. Custom filter options can be added using the `net.sourceforge.tagsea.filters` extension point. The filter must be contributed in the same plugin that defines the waypoint.

More extensive tag filtering	It is now possible to link that filtering in the tags view to the waypoints view. Enabling this preference will make it so that only tags that are referenced by waypoints that pass the contributed waypoints filters will be displayed in the tags viewer.

Custom actions in the waypoints view	Custom actions can now be contributed to the waypoints view context menu. The actions are contributed using the normal object contribution method for context menus. The javadoc documentation for the IWaypoint interface describes how to set the enablement and visibility of your actions based on the waypoint type.

Resource Waypoints

New method for saving waypoints

Resource waypoints can now be persisted inside your workspace projects, or outside of them.

This preference can be changed globally using the Resource Waypoints preference page, or on a per-project basis using the properties of a project. By default, the waypoints are saved outside of the workspace in order to avoid unwanted conflicts in team projects. We are currently working on methods of synchronizing and sharing waypoints.

Resource waypoints filter based on selection

You can filter resource waypoints based on the current workbench selection.

Java waypoints and Java Task waypoints have the same options.

Extras

Four new waypoint types

Four new waypoint types: URL waypoints, Java Task waypoints, Breakpoint waypoints, and C/C++ waypoints have been added in the "extras" feature which can be downloaded seperately from the TagSEA core feature. URL waypoints allow you to "bookmark" any url in Eclipse and open it in the Eclipse web browser. Java Task waypoints expose your Java TODO's, FIXME's, etc., as TagSEA waypoints. Breakpoint waypoints do the same for breakpoints. C/C++ waypoints allow you to create tags and waypoints in your C/C++ code.

Tags for Software Engineering Activities in Eclipse (TagSEA)
is a research collaboration between the University of Victoria's Computer Human Interaction & Software Engineering Lab and the IBM Watson Research Centre.