The standard 'Select all' command doesn't work

Question

I have a TableViewer within my View and I would like to use the org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll command to select all rows using the standard Ctrl+A shortcut.

When I put tracing on I can see the HandlerAuthority class resolves some conflicts and the output looks like this:

HANDLERS >>> Command('org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll') has changed to 'org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler' as its handler
HANDLERS >>>     resolveConflicts: eval: HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler@2a3e58,
    expression=,sourcePriority=0)
HANDLERS >>> Resolved conflict detected.  The following activation won: 
HANDLERS >>>     HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler@2a3e58,
    expression=,sourcePriority=0)
HANDLERS >>>     resolveConflicts: eval: HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler@2a3e58,
    expression=,sourcePriority=0)
HANDLERS >>> Resolved conflict detected.  The following activation won: 
HANDLERS >>>     HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler@2a3e58,
    expression=,sourcePriority=0)
HANDLERS >>>     resolveConflicts: eval: HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=ActionHandler(RetargetAction(selectAll)),
    expression=ActiveShellExpression(Shell {SPL v0.1.2 (VYVOJ) (DB TEST)}),sourcePriority=17408)
HANDLERS >>>     resolveConflicts: eval: HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler@2a3e58,
    expression=,sourcePriority=0)
HANDLERS >>> Resolved conflict detected.  The following activation won: 
HANDLERS >>>     HandlerActivation(commandId=org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll,
    handler=ActionHandler(RetargetAction(selectAll)),
    expression=ActiveShellExpression(Shell {SPL v0.1.2 (VYVOJ) (DB TEST)}),sourcePriority=17408)
HANDLERS >>> Command('org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll') has changed to 'ActionHandler(RetargetAction(selectAll))' as its handler

When I press Ctrl+A I can see:

KEYS >>> Listener.handleEvent(type = KeyDown, stateMask = 0x0, keyCode = 0x40000, time = 9403459, character = 0x0)
    KEYS >>> Listener.handleEvent(type = KeyDown, stateMask = 0x40000, keyCode = 0x61, time = 9403553, character = 0x1)
    KEYS >>> WorkbenchKeyboard.press(potentialKeyStrokes = [CTRL+A])
    KEYS >>> WorkbenchKeyboard.executeCommand(commandId = 'org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll', parameters = {})
    KEYS >>>     not handled

Debugging the RetargetAction I found that the Action is not handled because it has no handler set.

So my question is, why the HandlerAuthority sets an RetargetAction as a handler for the org.eclipse.ui.edit.selectAll command? I would like to use the default one (org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SelectAllHandler).

Answer 1

All actions which are intended to be implemented by multiple views and editors use RetargetAction. You hook in to the retarget action in your view like this:

IActionBars bars = getViewSite().getActionBars();

bars.setGlobalActionHandler(ActionFactory.SELECT_ALL.getId(), selectAllAction);

where selectionAllAction is an Action that does the select all on your table. The action might look like:

class SelectAllAction extends Action
{
  private final TableViewer tableViewer;

  SelectAllAction(final TreeViewer viewer)
  {
    tableViewer = viewer;
  }


  @Override
  public void run()
  {
    tableViewer.getTable().selectAll();

    // Get table view selection synchronized with table selection

    tableViewer.setSelection(tableViewer.getSelection());
  }
}