Shortcuts for Next / Previous result in the Search View

Paul Webster posted a very nice small Eclipse plugin to support Tor Norby from the Javaposse.

This plugin defines a command which defines shortcuts to navigate through the search results in the search view, even if the search view doesn’t have the focus.

I find such a plugin very useful therefore I decided to “re-blog” Pauls code. Here is the coding and the plugin.xml.

package z.ex.search;

import java.util.HashMap;

public class NextPrevSearchEntryHandler extends AbstractHandler implements IExecutableExtension {
	private String searchCommand = IWorkbenchCommandConstants.NAVIGATE_NEXT;

	public Object execute(ExecutionEvent event) throws ExecutionException {
		IWorkbenchWindow window = HandlerUtil.getActiveWorkbenchWindowChecked(event);
		ICommandService cs = (ICommandService) window.getService(ICommandService.class);
		
		Command showView = cs.getCommand(IWorkbenchCommandConstants.VIEWS_SHOW_VIEW);
		HashMap<String, Object> parms = new HashMap<String, Object>();
		parms.put(IWorkbenchCommandConstants.VIEWS_SHOW_VIEW_PARM_ID, "org.eclipse.search.ui.views.SearchView");
		ParameterizedCommand showSearchView = ParameterizedCommand.generateCommand(showView, parms);
		
		IHandlerService hs = (IHandlerService) window.getService(IHandlerService.class);
		try {
			hs.executeCommand(showSearchView, (Event)event.getTrigger());
			hs.executeCommand(searchCommand, (Event)event.getTrigger());
			hs.executeCommand(IWorkbenchCommandConstants.WINDOW_ACTIVATE_EDITOR, (Event)event.getTrigger());
		} catch (NotDefinedException e) {
			throw new ExecutionException(e.getMessage(), e);
		} catch (NotEnabledException e) {
			throw new ExecutionException(e.getMessage(), e);
		} catch (NotHandledException e) {
			throw new ExecutionException(e.getMessage(), e);
		}
		
		return null;
	}

	public void setInitializationData(IConfigurationElement config,
			String propertyName, Object data) throws CoreException {
		if ("previous".equals(data)) {
			searchCommand = IWorkbenchCommandConstants.NAVIGATE_PREVIOUS;
		}
	}

}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?eclipse version="3.4"?>
<plugin>
   <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ui.commands">
      <command
            categoryId="org.eclipse.ui.category.navigate"
            defaultHandler="z.ex.search.NextPrevSearchEntryHandler:next"
            id="z.ex.search.nextSearchEntry"
            name="Next Search Entry">
      </command>
      <command
            categoryId="org.eclipse.ui.category.navigate"
            defaultHandler="z.ex.search.NextPrevSearchEntryHandler:previous"
            id="z.ex.search.prevSearchEntry"
            name="Previous Search Entry">
      </command>
   </extension>
   <extension
         point="org.eclipse.ui.bindings">
      <key
            commandId="z.ex.search.nextSearchEntry"
            contextId="org.eclipse.ui.contexts.window"
            schemeId="org.eclipse.ui.defaultAcceleratorConfiguration"
            sequence="ALT+.">
      </key>
      <key
            commandId="z.ex.search.prevSearchEntry"
            contextId="org.eclipse.ui.contexts.window"
            schemeId="org.eclipse.ui.defaultAcceleratorConfiguration"
            sequence="ALT+,">
      </key>
   </extension>

</plugin>

I think it would be cool to have this in standard Eclipse. If you agree please place your opinion in the bug report from Paul: Bug Report.

Thanks Paul, I hope it is ok to blog about your development.

If you are located in Germany you may be interested in my Eclipse RCP training which I deliver together with Ralf Ebert.