Eclipse rename/refactoring override

Question

I am new to eclipse plug-in development. I want to customize the renaming of a project. I need to validate the new name. So how can I override eclipse's rename/refactoring method?

I saw something related to RenameParticipant, but didn't understand clearly. It would be great if someone could explain me steps to override the renaming functionality.

Many Thanks, Ann

Answer 1

The rename refactoring has several processors that subclass org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants.RenameProcessor and are responsible for renaming different elements. For example, there is a processor for renaming Java projects org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.rename.RenameJavaProjectProcessor. A refactoring participant can participate in the condition checking and change creation of a refactoring processor. For example, to check some conditions during a rename refactoring, you should subclass org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants.RenameParticipant, override the method org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.participants.RefactoringParticipant.checkConditions(IProgressMonitor, CheckConditionsContext) and register the participant via the extension point org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.renameParticipants. The participant org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.nls.NLSAccessorFieldRenameParticipant gives you a good example of how to participate in a rename refactoring.

When you declare your extension of the org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.renameParticipants extension point, you should specify the element you'd like your participant to get notified about. For example, see how the following use of the org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.renameParticipants extension point in org.eclipse.jdt.ui/plugin.xml involves the participant in renaming fields.

<extension point="org.eclipse.ltk.core.refactoring.renameParticipants">
  <renameParticipant class="org.eclipse.jdt.internal.corext.refactoring.nls.NLSAccessorFieldRenameParticipant" id="org.eclipse.jdt.ui.NLSFieldRenameParticipant" name="%Refactoring.NLSFieldRenameParticipant">
    <enablement>
      <with variable="affectedNatures">
        <iterate operator="or">
          <equals value="org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature"/>
        </iterate>
      </with>
      <with variable="element">
        <instanceof value="org.eclipse.jdt.core.IField"/>
      </with>
    </enablement>
  </renameParticipant>
</extension>