In Eclipse, how do I make a .pdf file open with the System Editor by default?

Question

My Eclipse plugin produces .pdf files for my users in the Project Explorer in the projects that my plugin creates. Today, a tester noticed that on his install, when he double clicks this .pdf file in his project explorer, he gets the OLE exception dialog...

What I want to do is make so that when my plugin is installed in Eclipse, it modifies the preferences to assign the .pdf file association to the system's pdf viewer.

I realize that this might be a bad idea, since I can't assume that a user has a PDF viewer installed on his/her PC.

I noticed that when I right click the .pdf file in the project explorer, that I get a choice to "Open With" various options like "Default Editor" and "System Editor". I'd like my plugin to make the default action be Open With -> System Editor.

Is this possible? If so, how?

Answer 1

It does not look like it is possible to change or add a file association without using internal classes.

You can get the existing file associations with:

IEditorRegistry editorRegistry = PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getEditorRegistry();

IFileEditorMapping [] mappings = editorRegistry.getFileEditorMappings();

but updating the list requires using the EditorRegistry implementation of IEditorRegistry and this is an internal class. The implementation of IFileEditorMapping is also internal.

Update:

The org.eclipse.ui.editors extension point does have a command attribute for running an external program and a launcher attribute for running a program via a IEditorLauncher class. You might be able to use one of those.

Answer 2

Try Window > Preferences > General > Editors > File Associations.

Add *.pdf if it is not there. Highlight it and then add an associated editor. Select the External programs radio and then Adobe Acrobat Document or another reader program.