Understanding editor extensions

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Editor extensions allow you to customize your workflows by plugging directly into the editor framework. Unlike application extensions, editor extensions are loaded when the edit session starts (Editor>Start Editing).

There are two general cases where a custom editor extension is appropriate: automatic response to events and low-level components or state management.

Custom editor extensions can automatically respond to specific events, such as creating or modifying a feature within an edit session, typically for validation purposes. Such extensions would sink the outbound interfaces (Events) on the Editor object. If you are creating an editor extension via an add-in, these interfaces are exposed for you. These types of editor extensions are the most common.

Editor extensions are appropriate when you have a collection of commands or tools that need to access common data or functionality. For example, a custom editing application may have several editing properties, such as snap tolerance, that several related tools use. Often, these related tools rely on functionality additionally exposed by the extension.

The editing framework ships with several editing extensions of this type including the Attributes Window, the Digitizer extension, the Topology Editor extension, and the Conflict Resolution extension.