Force.com IDE Editors

When you open a file in Eclipse, the file opens in the editor area of the IDE. The editor that opens is based on the type of file. The Force.com IDE provides specialized editors for XML, Apex and Visualforce files.

The standard Eclipse editor functionality includes many useful editing features, such as syntax highlighting, unlimited undo and redo, element selection and formatting, and document formatting. The main Eclipse menu bar and toolbar contain operations that are applicable to the active editor.

The tabs at the top of the editor area display the names of files currently open for editing. An asterisk (*) indicates that a file has unsaved changes.

The tabs at the bottom of the editor area allow you to toggle between different views of the active file. For example, when you open an XML file, you can edit it in Design or Source view.

Force.com IDE editors have built-in content assistance for standard Apex and Lightning Platform metadata types. When editing a custom object, type the less-than sign (“<”) to pick from a list of valid elements. The Apex editor also provides code assistance; for details, see Apex Code Assist.

To use content assistance in a third-party XML editor installed as an Eclipse plugin, you must extract the schema/metadata.xsd file from <eclipse_installation>/plugins/com.salesforce.ide.api_<version>.jar and point the XML editor to this file.

Note

When you save a file, the editor checks for validity. You will not be able to save files to the server until they are formatted and compile correctly.

Force.com IDE Developer Guide

Force.com IDE Editors

See Also