Locate Images in and out From Your Eclipse RCP application

Loading images and other resources are a little different in Eclipse RCP than the normal Java applications. In this post, I'm going to list all the possible ways to locate images in and out of your Eclipse RCP applications.

To simplify the example code, I only show you how to get ImageDescriptor. After that, you can use createImage() to crate Image object from

1. Icons Folder Inside RCP project

Activator.getImageDescriptor("icons/tray.png");

2. from class path

If images are saved in the same place as your class:

ImageDescriptor.createFromFile(
    BookCoverView.class, "cover.jpg");

3. from external disk or Internet

This is helpful when you ask user to specify a image from their disk.

ImageDescriptor.createFromURL(
new URL("file:d://icons/info2.gif"));

4. reuse Eclipse's icons

Many common images (undo, redo, file, folder, cut, copy) are available thru the org.eclipse.ui.ISharedImages interface. You can get them with IWorkbench:

PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getSharedImages()
.getImage(ISharedImages.IMG_OBJ_FOLDER);

source: http://blog.cypal-solutions.com/2008/02/eclipse-icons.html

5. Access icons from other plugin

access the icons from other plugins without bundling them in your plugin:

AbstractUIPlugin.imageDescriptorFromPlugin(
"org.eclipse.ui", "$nl$/icons/import_wiz.gif");

source: http://blog.cypal-solutions.com/2008/02/eclipse-icons-follow-up-post.html