Within the workbench each part, editor or view, has a private set of action bars. This set, which contains a menu, toolbar, and status line, appears in the local toolbar for a view and in the window for an editor. The view may provide an implementation for pre-existing actions or add new actions to the action bars.

In a workbench window there are a number of actions which are applicable to all parts. Some common examples are CUT, COPY and PASTE. These actions, known as "global actions", are contributed to the workbench window by the window itself and shared by all parts. The presentation is owned by the window. The implementation is delegated to the active part.

To participate in the global action design an IWorkbenchPart should register a handler for each global action which is implemented by the part. This can be done by calling setGlobalActionHandler. For convenience, the standard global actions are defined in org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbenchActionConstants.

Additional work is required for the Delete global action. In this case the accelerator is defined in the menu item text but is not hooked on the window. This is to support text editors where the Delete key is functional even when the Delete action is disabled (no text is selected). An implementation for this accelerator must be defined locally, in each part, by listening for Delete key events.

A part may also contribute new actions to the action bars as required. To do this, call getMenuManager, getToolBarManager, or getStatusLineManager as appropriate to get the action target. Add the action(s) to the target and call update to commit any changes to the underlying widgets.

This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.