Interactive 2D-Diagrams for Eclipse: GEF

Slides: GEF
Experts: Malkhaz Gaprindashvili, Diana Cerbu
Contact: Daniel Speicher

Five points to remember

Java plugin for creating a visual editor using MVC
GEF is build on top of Draw2D which is used as the View
EditParts are controllers and can have one or many EditPolicies which determine the edit capabilities (resize, move, delete)
GEF provides a Pallete which allows visual selection of tools
Flow of requests/commands

Q: Does an GraphicalViewer work like a JFace-Viewer? Are the classes related through inheritance? Are there similar concepts?

Online-Help
The quality of the online help is not bad. It has one part about Draw2D and another part for the main part of GEF. You will find a general introduction for both as well as the documentation of the APIs.
GefDescription
Presents an alternative overview about the structure of GEF and about how to implement applications based on it.
Display a UML Diagram using Draw2D
A nice Tutorial that explains how to draw pictures of classes in the style of UML.
Create an Eclipse-based application using the Graphical Editing Framework ,
How to get started with the GEF A bigger tutorial containing some essential tips.
Example SchemaEditor based on GEF
A Shape Diagram Editor
is a nice simple example and part of the example plugin.
There were talks about GEF at the eclipseCON in 2005 by Randy Hudson, Pratik Shah:
- Tutorial “GEF In Depth” (local: Folien ), und eine
- Technical Session “The Graphical Editing Framework Project” (local: Folien )

06.03.05, dsp: ScrollableThumbnail can be used for an overview window. SVF makes use of this.
06.03.05, dsp: Decorating a BendpointConnectionRouter with a FanRouter blows overlapping Connections apart.