Bug 84314 [Viewers] Need to allow mapping elements to multiple widgets/items
One of the projects I am working on is using an essentially graph structured dependancy model and we use TableTreeViewer for browsing (drilling down) through this graph. The nature of the model is such that the same model element can occur in multiple positions (paths) of the three. Current implementation of the TreeViewer and TableTreeViewer do not support such one-to-many mapping of model elements to widgets, leading to loads of unnecessary overhead to enshure that correct items will get updated. Suggestion: Element -> Item mapper should allow returning of more than one item per model element that is associated with this element.
bundles/org.eclipse.jface/src/org/eclipse/jface/viewers/TreeViewer.java
/**
     * For a TreeViewer with a tree with the VIRTUAL style bit set, set the
     * number of children of the given element. To set the number of children
     * of the invisible root of the tree, the input object is passed as the
     * element.
     * 
     * @param element
     * @param count
     * 
	 * <strong>EXPERIMENTAL</strong>. This class or interface has been added as
	 * part of a work in progress. There is no guarantee that this API will remain
	 * unchanged during the 3.2 release cycle. Please do not use this API without
	 * consulting with the Platform/UI team.
	 * </p>
     * 
     * @since 3.2
     */
	public void setChildCount(Object element, int count) {
		Tree tree = (Tree) doFindInputItem(element);
		if (tree != null) {
			tree.setItemCount(count);
			return;
		}
		TreeItem item = (TreeItem) findItem(element);
		if (item != null) {
			item.setItemCount(count);
		}
	}
	/**
	 * For a TreeViewer with a tree with the VIRTUAL style bit set, replace the