This article covers JFace Data Binding together with the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) .

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the base concepts of EMF and JFace Data binding and will focus on the additional information how to use both frameworks together.

For an introduction to JFace Data Binding please see JFace Data Binding Tutorial

. For an introduction to Eclipse EMF please see Eclipse EMF Tutorial.

Create an RCP project called de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt based on the RCP application with a view . Add the org.eclipse.emf.ecore and the JFace data binding plug-ins as a plug-in dependency.

Create an EMF model called person.ecore. Create a class called Phone with the number property. Create also a class called Person which should have the following properties:

The result should look similar to the following.

Change the View class according to the following listing. The coding demonstrates how you can use Data Binding to access model properties. It also demonstrates how to access nestled properties to the phone class with is part of person.

package de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt;

import org.eclipse.core.databinding.DataBindingContext;
import org.eclipse.emf.databinding.EMFProperties;
import org.eclipse.emf.databinding.FeaturePath;
import org.eclipse.jface.databinding.swt.WidgetProperties;
import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Layout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Text;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;

import de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt.model.ModelFactory;
import de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt.model.ModelPackage;
import de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt.model.Person;
import de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt.model.Phone;

public class View extends ViewPart {

  public static final String ID = "de.vogella.databinding.emf.swt.view";
  private Text firstName;

  @Override
  public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
    final Person person = createPerson();

    Layout layout = new GridLayout(2, false);
    parent.setLayout(layout);

    firstName = new Text(parent, SWT.NONE);
    GridData gridData = new GridData();
    gridData.horizontalAlignment = GridData.FILL;
    gridData.horizontalSpan = 2;
    firstName.setLayoutData(gridData);
    Text phoneNumber = new Text(parent, SWT.NONE);
    gridData = new GridData();
    gridData.horizontalAlignment = GridData.FILL;
    gridData.horizontalSpan = 2;
    phoneNumber.setLayoutData(gridData);

    Button button1 = new Button(parent, SWT.PUSH);
    button1.setText("Write model");
    button1.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
      @Override
      public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
        System.out.println(person.getFirstName());
        System.out.println(person.getPhone().getNumber());
      }
    });
    

    Button button2 = new Button(parent, SWT.PUSH);
    button2.setText("Change model");
    button2.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
      @Override
      public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
        person.setFirstName("Lars2");
        String reversedNumber = new StringBuffer(person.getPhone()
            .getNumber()).reverse().toString();
        person.getPhone().setNumber(reversedNumber);
      }
    });

    DataBindingContext bindingContext = new DataBindingContext();
    bindingContext.bindValue(WidgetProperties.text(SWT.Modify).observe(firstName),
        EMFProperties.value(ModelPackage.Literals.PERSON__FIRST_NAME)
            .observe(person));

    FeaturePath feature = FeaturePath.fromList(ModelPackage.Literals.PERSON__PHONE,
        ModelPackage.Literals.PHONE__NUMBER);
    bindingContext.bindValue(WidgetProperties.text(SWT.Modify).observe(phoneNumber),
        EMFProperties.value(feature).observe(person));
  }

  private Person createPerson() {
    // Initialize the model
    ModelPackage.eINSTANCE.eClass();
    // Retrieve the default factory singleton
    ModelFactory factory = ModelFactory.eINSTANCE;

    final Person person = factory.createPerson();
    person.setFirstName("Lars");
    person.setLastName("Vogel");
    person.setGender("m");
    Phone phone = factory.createPhone();
    phone.setNumber("0123456789");
    person.setPhone(phone);
    return person;
  }

  @Override
  public void setFocus() {
    firstName.setFocus();
  }
} 

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