VMware Communities : All Content - vSphere Client Plug-ins

Plugin name and description do not show correctly within Plug-in Manager Window

JamesWe — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:39:35 GMT

The problem is that the data is just not properly registered no matter what you seem to do. We created a Description object and added it to Extension, ExtentionServerInfo and ExtentionClientInfo any nothing we put into the Description object is registered by the server.

Example:
Description description = new Description("desc 1", new DynamicProperty[]{}, "desc2", "desc3");

Creating the above description and then registering with the server, none of those 3 strings show up anywhere on the plug-in information page. It would be helpful if you could give us an example using the Java registration code on how to set up the registration "properly". As I have been unable to find out how to change the fields that everyone else keeps mentioning above.

Proper XML for config and extension...

mikes113 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:13:21 GMT

Going through all of the documentation the one thing that seems incredibly lacking is configuration of the necessary XML files. I have a test plugin that I have done in C#, when I copy the DLL's to the plugins path it shows up in vSphere and works as expected. Now what I want to do is make it so that I can have a "Download and Install" link inside the download manager through vCenter.

I have managed to get an extension added to vCenter and it will show up in the plugins list, but how do I get the required files (I already have created an installer for them) down to the client from vCenter? This would be the same kind of behavior as the enterprise converter, which I have tried to dig into, but I can't find the appropriate files.

Sorry if this is a bit of a newb type question, but I am not seeing much documentation on this anywhere, and wherever it does exist, it's not very good to explain the different options.

Extend VM Creation

stumpr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:22:05 GMT

I don't think you can add to the Inventory Tree, for example, adding another item there. But you should be able to build a wizard or web plugin to do a VM creation with your added features. I don't think you can replace the default VM create context menu item, however.

I did see a note about the C# API being depreciated in the future on the current Plug development landing page. I wonder what that implies for the future. One of the problems with web plugins I'm running into is keeping to the look and feel of the vCenter client. You can fake some of it, but obviously creating some of the more dynamic grid table features, for example, is not an easy web task.

Edit: I found it later in the presentation, looks like 3 years to phase out C# into this Flex Portal noted in the presentation.

Coffee Talk Webinar - Creating vSphere Client Plugins - Wed December 2rd, 2009 9:00 AM PST

heyitspablo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:04:46 GMT

Folks,

We are happy to have Nimish from the R&D team present this very popular session on creating vSphere Client Plugins. Please join us.
PDF, MP3 and Web Ex will be posted here right after webinar.

Title: Creating vSphere Client Plug-ins
Abstract: VMware vSphere Client Plug-ins allows VMware partners/ customers to extend vSphere client by integrating with 3rd party applications. In this session you will understand capabilities of vSphere client's extensibility framework, best practices in development of plug-ins.
Level Advanced
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Time: 9:00 am, Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00, San Francisco)
Meeting Number: 921 448 054
Meeting Password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
Dial In: Toll free: 1-888-373-5705
Toll: 1-719-457-3840
Tie: 650-3310
Join Meeting: https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?ED=124086677&UID=0
Intl Toll Free: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11189

Message was edited by: heyitspablo Corrected date in subject line

Coffee Talk Webinar - Intl Toll Free Number - Wed Dec 2nd 2009 - 9:00 AM PST

heyitspablo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:30:30 GMT

Toll free: 1-888-373-5705

Toll: 1-719-457-3840

Participant Passcode: 595805
Tie:
650-3310

International toll free - Argentina:
0800 666 3185

International toll free - Austria:
0800 295 947

International toll free - Belgium:
0 800 73 451

International toll free - Brazil:
0 800 891 9799

International toll free - Chile:
123 0020 6968

International toll free - China, Northern Region:
10 800 714 0966

International toll free - China, Southern Region:
10 800 140 0941

International toll free - Colombia:
01 800 518 0500

International toll free - Costa Rica:
0800 015 0458

International toll free - Czech Republic:
800 142 275

International toll free - Denmark:
80 887 640

International toll free - Dominican Republic:
1 888 751 4415

International toll free - France:
0 800 909 053

International toll free - Germany:
0 800 186 2222

International toll free - Greece:
00 800 161 2205 2053

International toll free - Hong Kong:
800 964 592

International toll free - Hungary:
06 800 184 64

International toll free - Iceland:
800 8200

International toll free - India:
000 800 1006 413

International toll free - Indonesia:
001 803 017 2053

International toll free - Ireland:
1 800 760 202

International toll free - Israel:
1 80 924 5929

International toll free - Italy:
800 873 537

International toll free - Latvia:
8000 2496

International toll free - Lithuania:
8 800 9 00 59

International toll free - Luxembourg:
800 2 5399

International toll free - Malaysia:
1 800 812 636

International toll free - Mexico:
001 800 514 2056

International toll free - Monaco:
800 93 303

International toll free - Netherlands:
0 800 022 2638

International toll free - New Zealand:
0 800 445 299

International toll free - Norway:
800 191 68

International toll free - Panama:
00 800 226 2053

International toll free - Philippines:
1 800 111 004 23

International toll free - Poland:
00 800 111 48 31

International toll free - Portugal:
800 819 372

International toll free - Russia:
810 800 2541 1012

International toll free - Singapore:
800 101 1773

International toll free - Slovenia:
0 800 80811

International toll free - South Africa:
0 800 999 577

International toll free - South Korea:
003 0813 1645

International toll free - Spain:
900 987 062

International toll free - Sweden:
02 079 6211

International toll free - Switzerland:
0 800 562 324

International toll free - Taiwan:
00 801 126 823

International toll free - Thailand:
001 800 156 205 2053

International toll free - Trinidad-Tobago:
1 800 205 2053

International toll free - UK:
0 800 051 7153

International toll free - Uruguay:
0004 019 0095

International toll free - Venezuela:
0 800 100 5206

Participant Passcode:
595805

Technology Exchange - Developer Day Session: Creating vSphere Client Plugins

heyitspablo — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:52:58 GMT

Folks - Happy to let you know that we will be having a session dedicated to creating vSphere Client Plugins - Dont miss out, we will also have opportunity for hands on labs and meet Nimish and Manas. Look forward to seeing you there.

Title: Creating vSphere Client Plug-ins
Session ID: TBD
Abstract
VMware vSphere Client Plug-ins allows VMware partners/ customers to extend vSphere client by integrating with 3rd party applications. In this session you will understand capabilities of vSphere client's extensibility framework, best practices in development of plug-ins and participate in hands-on demos.
Level Advanced

{youtube}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joc3ZFQyoCo{youtube}

Nimish Sheth
I have been at VMware for more than 2 years and am part of the vSphere client team. I have worked on vSphere client's plug-in framework in 2.5 and 4.0 releases. Apart from plug-ins, in 4.0 release I worked on UI design & development of Storage VMotion, Fault Tolerance and vNetwork Distributed Switch. I completed my Master's in Management Informations Systems (MIS) from Texas A & M in December 2005. When not working, I like playing cricket, tennis and listening to music.

Manas Kelshikar
I have been at VMware for 2 years and am part of the vSphere client team. I have worked on vSphere client's plug-in framework in the 4.0 release. I completed my Master's in Computer Engineering from Syracuse.

How to delete privileges registered by extensions?

Andulla — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:26:53 GMT

Hi,

we registered our plugin with a list of privileges as ExtensionPrivilegeInfo.

After deregistration the list of privilieges are not deleteted and i can find them in the AuthorizationManager inside the privilegeList

Inside the vSphere Client they are shown as XXX.privilege.XXX because of no longer registered Resource Infos.

How can i delete these custom privileges inside the privilegeList of the AuthorizationManager?

Get Context Menue Icons for Plugin?

Rossignol — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:18:35 GMT

Hi all,

just writing an plugin based on perl toolkit to do some scripting in virtual center directly.

Now it is possible to define an Icon for the Plugin in form of Icon small or icon extension.

But this works not for Context Menue entries. Would be so nice if you can define your own plugin icon,

first to differ from virtual center commands and second because there's place for icons as the're used by Vmware for Open Console, Edit Settings or migrate command for example in the VM Context Menue.

Does anybody knew a way to get this work... or is it not possible yet?

Any help would be appreciated...

Plugins wont load in vSphere client

huttj — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:54:47 GMT

I filed a support request with VMware about this exact issue about a month ago. VMware engineering was previously aware of this issue and has noted that the earliest we will see a fix is in U2 for vCenter 4 sometime mid 2010. Until then, the only workaround is to manually remove quotes from the system path.

Flex Applications and Client Plug-ins

dcap — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:10:25 GMT

Anyone monitoring this forum?

Creating vSphere Client Plug In - Tech Ex Developer Day Session

heyitspablo — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:52:55 GMT

I managed to post the MP3 on our Blog. This should work. Please let me know.
http://blogs.vmware.com/developer/2009/10/vsphere-client-plugins-pdf-and-mp3.html

error trying to retreive extensionlist

AngelaS — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:06:54 GMT

Hi,

You need to set the type of the managed object whose properties you wanted to retrieve as the "type" property of "PropertySpec". The property of the managed object to be retrieved is passed in the pathset. So, set the type property of PropertySepc to the type of the managed object "ExtensionManager".

Please refer to the below code snippet:

ManagedObjectReference extMOREF = _sic.extensionManager;

PropertySpec pSpec = new PropertySpec();

pSpec.type = extMOREF.type ;

pSpec.all = true;

pSpec.pathSet = new string[] { "extensionList" };

ObjectSpec oSpec = new ObjectSpec();

oSpec.obj = extMOREF;

Try the above changes at your end and let us know if you were able to resolve the issue.

CACHE.XML

LeeTheMC — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:04:13 GMT

I recently ran into a problem on two identical hosts where a plug-in that I am developing appeared as "Disabled" in the plug-in manager. Prior to this day, the plug-in has been working without any issues. When the user attempted to "Enable" the plug-in, it had no effect. The plug-in just stayed as "disabled."

I tried a number of different tweaks to get this working and I eventually found the file, C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\vpx\PluginCache\cache.xml. Once I deleted this file and re-loaded vSphere Client, the plug-in was enabled again. Upon exit of vSphere Client, this file was recreated again.

Can anyone describe the use of this file? Any insight into why it might force my plug-in to be disabled?

Create vm privileges

idanmnr — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:50:06 GMT

using the SDK, how can I find out if a user has priveleges to create a vm?

thanks

idan

Regarding C# client plugins

klotsky88 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:27:15 GMT

You are right. The pdf in the next post from VMware Technology Exchange session mentions it.

Thanks

c# code needed to list plugins in extension manager!

rickyelqasem — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:59:07 GMT

Can you help me? I need code to list and unregister plugins in the extension manager.

Ricky El-Qasem

VCI/VCP - MCSE - RHCT

Plugin Wizard for vSphere

rickyelqasem — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:00:34 GMT

Cheers for the plug Carter.

Ricky El-Qasem

VCI/VCP - MCSE - RHCT

registering the nexus 1000v pllug-ing via MOB

c@v3m@n — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:06:12 GMT

Anyone know why we can register the Nexus 1000v plug-in properly via the vSphere client, but not via the MOB? I keep getting "InvalidRequest" when I try. Anyone who wants to take a crack at it can use the attached file.

Client Plugin Error

LeeTheMC — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:29:27 GMT

Without digging too deep into your code, my first recommendation would be to set ext.Content to some control. That might be the empty object pointer that the client is tripping on.

Lee

Change multiple vmx files

Rob Pijpers — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:35:30 GMT

Thanks for your reply, I already found the set-tkevmx addon.
I have writen (my first ) powershell script using this addon in combination with excel and it works like a charm.
If you know vbscript learing powershell is easy but you have to think differently.
Powergui helps you by selecting vbscript snippets that will automatically replaced by powershell code

Technology Exchange Developer Day - vSphere Client Plug-Ins Demo

YDK — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:05:41 GMT

Okay! Thanks.

VMware Server Plugin Registration

harkamal — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:01:37 GMT

Yes this is possible, you can register your own programs as server side plugins which will be available centrally for VI Clients to download and use from Plugins main menu.

A good starting point is here http://akutz.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/vi3progplugin-rev13.pdf

Let me know if you need more help

How to set the text in a window title bar

harkamal — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:56:52 GMT

Can you elaborate more as to what and how you are trying

Current version of the Plugin UI Guidelines

ejohannes — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:50:51 GMT

I have a copy of the "Virtual Infrastructure Client Plugin UI Guidelines" document. It is a draft version 0.3 dated July 2008.

I tired to search around for a more recent copy of this document but have not been able to find one.

Is there a more recent version of this document? If so where can I find it (it might be good to post a link or copy of it in this forum).

Thanks,

-Erik

Style Sheet meeting UI Guidelines for use with GWT

ejohannes — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:34:10 GMT

I am working on a plugin for the vCenter/vSphere client. I would like to make sure I comply with the UI Guidelines.

I am wondering if there is a style sheet (.css file) somewhere that complies with the VMWare Plugin UI Guidelines?

I am plannig on using GWT, so one that is perhaps specific to GWT and VMWare would be even better.

Thanks,

-Erik

p.s. I also posted this question to another vSphere forum. It was suggested that I post to this forum.

Session passing across popup windows

mkolcun — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:18:33 GMT

Is there any information on session passing between windows?

When I view my website from within vSphere I log in for the first time and everything works correctly.

When I click a link that pops up a window, I'm forced to login again, each time. It seems the session is not being passed to this new window.

Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks

/mike

Connection to Virtual Center lost

Partridge — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:22:41 GMT

No one else has experienced this?

How are other developers performing HttpWebRequests in their plugins? Is there a connection limit? Is there a preferred threading model to use for plugins?

Modal window does not work

vSphereFan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:24:29 GMT

When attempting to create an extension that uses a modal window, vSphere opens a browser to display the url specified rather than displaying a window.

<title>Nested
menu-item</title>

<url>http://www.google.com/</url>

<title>Level 1 -
a</title>

<extension>
<title>Level 2 - a</title><url
display="window">http://www.google.com/</url>
</extension>

<extension>
<title>Level 2 - b</title><*url
display="modalwindow"*>http://www.google.com/</url>
</extension>

</extension>

<extension>
<title>Level 1 - b</title> <url
display="window">http://www.google.com/</url>
</extension>

<extension>
<title>Level 1 - c</title> <*url
display="modalwindow"*>http://www.google.com/</url>
</extension>

</extension>

Session/Cookie issue with VI Client Plug-ins

mkolcun — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:56:50 GMT

Checking to see if you got anywhere with this issue?

I'm having a similar issue, with PHP. The logged in user opens a popup, and the session does not exist in that popup, so instead of seeing the popup content, they get bounced back to the login page.

Is there a way to make this session sharable across these windows? just like it works in a regular browser .

Thanks

Package: com.vmware.vim25.mo

acnsys — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:27:15 GMT

I was missing the right libraries, found this useful http://vijava.wiki.sourceforge.net/vijavaapisetup

Invalid URI: The URI is empty

arun15thmay — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:18:01 GMT

Hello Ppl,

I'm getting this error when i was trying to Download and Install a plugin from the Available plugins list. This is the config xml file for my plugin

<scriptConfiguration version="1.0">

<key>com.abc.ipaddresslist</key>
<description>Plug-in Displays IP Address of all VM</description>
<name>IP Address List Plug-in</name>
<vendor>ABC</vendor>
<multiVCsupported>false</multiVCsupported>
<extension parent=InventoryView.HostSystem>
<title locale="en">IP Address List</title>
<url display="window">http://10.31.245.28:8080/IPAddressList/index.jsp</url>
</extension>
</scriptConfiguration>

Can anyone tell what is the issue with this?

Actually I'm trying to add a tab to the InventoryView.HostSystem that would display all the IPAddresses used in the ESX Server. I think there are errors in this config file. Please help me in this.

Refresh Issue with the plugin

ssbangal — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:14:50 GMT

Hi,

I have developed a plugin (ASP.NET application), which i have successfully registered and everything is working fine. The plug-in is registered to show at the "Cluster" level.

Let's say I open up the vSphere client, go to the new plug-in tab for "Cluster 1" and do some operations in the plug-in. Then let's say I click on the second cluster "Cluster 2" and come back to "Cluster 1". In this case the data that is being shown for the Plug-in is the old one, which was retrieved when the plug-in was initially loaded. The data that was changed after the operations is not at all reflected. The only time it reflects is when I do a complete refresh of the plug-in using F5. But if I go to some other tab on the same cluster and come back to my Plug-in tab, i do not see this issue. It happens only when i move to another cluster and come back to the original cluster. It is as if vSphere is remembering my first viewstate (when it was initially loaded) and displaying it back.

Any clue on how to fix this issue?

Regards,
Sudhir

using the moref information received in the url

idanmnr — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:59:31 GMT

Thanks.

I managed to work it out with the help fo your sample.

if anybody is interested: here is a snippet of how I did it using .NET.

ManagedObjectReference viewmanager = cb.getServiceConnectionV25().ServiceContent.viewManager;

ManagedObjectReference moref = new ManagedObjectReference();
moref.type = "Datacenter"; // you get this piece of info in the uri when working ith plugins
moref.Value = "datacenter-1"; // you get this piece of info in the uri when working ith plugins

ManagedObjectReference listView = cb.getServiceConnectionV25().Service.CreateListView( viewmanager, new ManagedObjectReference[] { moref } );

ManagedObjectReference]theView = (ManagedObjectReference[) cb.getServiceUtilV25().GetDynamicProperty( listView, "view" );

// test that the moref i have is really the correct one.

String dcName = (String)cb.getServiceUtilV25().GetDynamicProperty ( theView[0], "name" );

idanmnr

VimAPI works but Vim25Api doesn't

idanmnr — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:30:47 GMT

Problem solved.

Bug in my code.

checked the state of SvcConnection instead of SvcConnectionV25

Invalid URI: the URI is empty

daniel_uk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:48:26 GMT

Hi,

Strange I get the attached error...this is for the Nexus 1000v Plugin.

Any ideas why this is and how i can download the client?

new vm advanced options - virtual device node

idanmnr — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:03:12 GMT

when creating a new vm, in the advanced options, the virtual device node has 2 options:

SCSI and IDE.

for some guest OSs, the default is IDE and for some its SCSI.

where in the SDK is it defined?

How can I find out for which guest OS the default setting is ISE and for which the default setting is SCSI?

is it in the GuestOSDescriptor? which property?

Thanks

idanmnr

How to conditionally display a menu or view for a distributed virtual switch (DVS)

Jalaja — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:11:56 GMT

Hello,

I have used the customAttribute to conditionally display views for Virtual Machines and hosts , but it does not work for Distributed Virtual Switch (unable to add custom attributes). Could you please let me know if there is any other way to achieve the same.

Regards,
Jalaja.

Need some help getting started

daz007 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:08:37 GMT

ok. I've figured it out. I was using a 4.0 plugin. When I switched to the older 1.0.0 plugin format, it worked.

I guess my plugin format was too new for the version that I am using...

How to obtain valid ManagedObject and\or HostSystem objects?

ofwood — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:47:11 GMT

Hi,
I stumbled into this issue too. This has been a major roadblock when porting my plugin from VC2.5 to v4 client. Tried different things too and finally found one that worked for me:

In load (VIApp app)... I set mService(property) using the VIapp ServerUuid.

mService = VmomiSupport.ServiceManager.ServiceByUuid(app.ServerList(0).ServiceInstance.ServerUuid);

from then on, you can use the vmomi interface just as before, or almost... You were on the right track with the To.guid().

string guid = VirtualInfrastructure.ManagedObject.ToGuid(mMOR.ServerUuid, mMOR.WsdlTypeName, mMOR.Id)
VirtualInfrastructure.ManagedObject mo = mService.ManagedObjects(guid);
Vmomi.HostSystem host = mo as Vmomi.HostSystem;
Debug.print("Host: {0}", host.getname());

Hope this can help.

How do I use the sessionId parameter?

mikefoley — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:54:04 GMT

You can see some example Perl code I wrote here:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/202882?tstart=15

I take the sessionID, plug that into a cookie and reconnect back to vCenter.

Enjoy,

mike

Realign

fletch00 — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:51 GMT

Hi,
I have a whole bunch of misaligned VMs and the Netapp tool requires shutting then all down to align them.
Could VMWare make a SVMotion plugin with the option to properly align on the destination volume?

thanks!

VCP

RDP Plug IN

harkamal — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:41:00 GMT

Suggest reading Plugin guide..
http://akutz.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/vi3progplugin-rev13.pdf

I have written a plugin for RDP/SSH etc using the guide above. Help yourselves and you will learn lot new things.

VI Client Plug-ins FAQ

c_shanklin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:21:51 GMT

Overview

This document explains VI client plug-in functionality as provided by the VMware 3.5 / VirtualCenter 2.5 platform.

You can find technical information about developing VI client plug-ins by reading the VI Client Plug-in Technote.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are VI client plug-ins?
A: VI client plug-ins provide an experimental means of extending the VI Client when used in conjunction with VMware VirtualCenter. VI client plug-ins allow you to create custom menus and tabs within VirtualCenter that can be integrated with 3rd-party applications.

Q: What does it mean that VI client plug-ins are experimental?
A: Since the VI client plug-in API is experimental, it is subject to change in a future release of VMware Virtual Infrastructure.

Q: Where can I get technical information on VI client plug-ins?
A: Documentation for the VI client plug-in feature is available as a VMware tech note.

Q: I am trying to develop a VI client plug-in. How can I get support?
A: Support is available through the VMware VI client plug-in community.

Q: Will I be able to integrate my application with VMware VirtualCenter?
A: You may be able to integrate your application with VirtualCenter provided the following two conditions are met:

Your application must integrate with VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX using the VMware APIs.
Your application must have a web interface, or be distributed with a web server that is capable of communicating with VirtualCenter.

Q: How does this plug-in interface compare to the plug-in interface as documented on viplugins.com?
A: VI Client Plug-ins do not use client-side code. Instead, VI client plug-ins rely on an external web server to communicate with VMware VirtualCenter.

Q: If I install a plug-in, how does it affect my service contract?
A: A plug-in is considered third party software, as defined in the VMware Third Party Hardware and Software Support Policy.

How to debug vi-plugin using visual studio

LeeTheMC — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:53:30 GMT

In the project properties, just set Debug to "Start external program" and then select the Vpxclient.exe from the launcher folder. Now, build everything with debug, hit F5 to go and any breakpoints in your plugin (.dll) should break when your plugin is loaded (if it is loaded properly).

C# ExtensionManager returning null

harkamal — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:09:06 GMT

Try MOB browser, check if you can navigate to Config > extension manager ??

What is api version ? I think v2.0.0 is not supported -- vi-plugin tab is not there in viclient v2

An error occured during conversion of soap object to C# stub

harkamal — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:40:19 GMT

How did you preserve data retrieved in first page, before you navigated to second ?

Plugin - first code

harkamal — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:40:11 GMT

Run genvimstubs.cmd from visual studio command prompt, it in the sdk folder. It will give you the necessary dll client stubs for vi development.

Source of plugin invocation

harkamal — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:26:33 GMT

Refer to Getting Started with Vi-Plugin guide by Andrew Kurtz -- thats where it all started.

http://akutz.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/vi3progplugin-rev13.pdf

http://akutz.wordpress.com/publications/

Does that answer your question ?

HK

Convert a Script to a pluggin

harkamal — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:22:37 GMT

Do you need to run this script with powershell and wish to be invoked from main menu or as context menu from a vm/host etc ?

Error 502 Bad Gateway - after U4 perfCharts Install

luzula — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:45:53 GMT

Hello Community,

after installing 3.5 U4 and running install.bat for "post-install install" of perfCharts the plugin is visible as installed "com.vmware.vim.stats.report". The german tab "Leistungsübersicht" just shows an "502 Bad Gareway The requested URL could not be retrieved" error message. We are using remote MS SQL 2005 cluster services. Is there anything else to configure or implement on Virtual Center Server or on the remote cluster hosts ?

Any ideas at all?

THX in Advance

Greets Holger

Web-based VI plugins problem

chjerome — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:34:58 GMT

Finally, i resolved my problem. Indeed, because vmware use internet explorer core to render web page, it use also, IE setting. I worked with Firefox,so i didn't notice that the url of the plugin was unreachable since my computer with IE proxy setting

Thanks for your help

Jérôme

plugin development and web server

harkamal — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:08:39 GMT

Hi

How are you. I hope you got some leads as to how to develop vi plugin. I am also starting up, could you share some knowledge.

Thanks
HK

Vi Client Plug-ins List

Leafy911 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:55:24 GMT

The http://www.vm4all.com/ site needs updating as some of the links don't work, but it has definately got potential.

Here are 2 more Plug-ins not listed on that site:

GuessMyOS
This plug-in replaces generic VM icons in the VI3 client inventory tree with OS-specific icons for both Windows and Linux guests.

H9Labs Search Bar
This plug-in gives the VMware VI Client 2.5 auto-complete search capability from inside the guest across your virtual infrastructure.

Both from Andy Kutz at Lostcreations / Hyper9

Regards
Leafy911

(Dont forget you recieve points when you award points)

Embedding chat in VI Client

AmaroM — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:25:17 GMT

Did you run the command within powershell

PS C:\> Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted

If you are going to the run the scritp located in a remote machine..

then you need add the machine to the Internet Trusted sites.

FYI - There is also an Administrative template for powershell (Which includes the execution policy)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2917a564-dbbc-4da7-82c8-fe08b3ef4e6d&DisplayLang=en

A Perl CGI script to retrieve the DNS host name from vCenter

mikefoley — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:48:04 GMT

I few weeks ago many of you read my trials and tribulations with getting the DNS hostname from VirtualCenter via a plugin.

My goal was to have a tab in the client that when clicked, would get the DNS hostname via a CGI script and have it create a link
to a web page that used the hostname in it's URL.

Example: http://webserver/host.name.html

Attached is the script I developed/hacked together. Many thanks to Stumpr and Steve Jin and others with their help and patience.

Seeing as this was developed on RSA/EMC's time (so I can use it as the basis of a demo I'm working on), it carries a legalese disclaimer.
Basically, it's for "informational purposes only". Feel free to use it but batteries are not included.

Included in the code are a ton of comments. These comments include the following that are to be cut-n-pasted into separate files.

The SessionID template file - Used for creating the cookie used by load_session
The XML file to register the new tab in VI client
Example Perl command to register the XML file.

In a nutshell, you'll copy the CGI file to your web server that has the Perl VI bits configured. In my case, I did this on Windows.
Extract out the SessionID template and the XML file.
Customize the CGI, XML and SessionID template as appropriate.
I suggest the SessionID file is in a separate directory that the web server can read and write to.
Register the XML file
Open the VI Client and you'll see a new tab when you click on a VM. Click on the tab and the VI Client will run the CGI script

Any questions, feel free to post them.

Thanks and enjoy,

mike foley
VCP/vExpert
RSA, the Security Division of EMC

How to register VM using vmware-vim-cmd for VMware Server 2.0

MauroBonder — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:34:50 GMT

Runing command "vmware-cmd" you can be:

Server Operations:
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -l
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s register <config_file_path>
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s unregister <config_file_path>
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s getresource <variable>
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s setresource <variable> <value>

You have in "/vmfs/volume" one ID for each LUN (Example: LUN 49aa9c6d-c325e755-70c6-00145ebd036f ) who is 49aa9c6d-c325e755-70c6-00145ebd036f ?
run "ls -la" in "/vmfs/volume" to know what lun is registred with this id.

I hope help you.

Regards!

ScheduledTaskManager.Create with C#

mcampulla — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:40:37 GMT

Thank you Steve, I reposted the question as you suggested

Plug-in's and recieving info from VirtualCenter

mikefoley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:33:36 GMT

Hi Steve,

I've moved the conversation over to http://communities.vmware.com/thread/200208 as you suggested.

There's no SSL to the server running the CGI script. (no need to complicate it further!)

mike

using VMworkstation and Visual Studio to develop windows services

fixitchris — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:42:55 GMT

Cool, let us know if you run into any snags....

http://vbnotebookfor.net/2007/07/24/how-to-make-debugging-net-windows-services-easier/

Need Help to Generate "Report Performance for a VM"

cchesley — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:39:38 GMT

Have you looked at the Vkernel Capacity Analyzer? it is located at: http://www.vkernel.com

It collects all the metrics you mentioned automatically for your entire environment and allows you to view it in many different ways.

Chris

Determining menu item selection

vifan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:01:59 GMT

Hi Steve,

That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your prompt response and help!!

VIFAN

Developing a Complete VI Client Plug-in with Tomcat and VI Java API

Steve Jin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:16:00 GMT

VI Client - What is Object '0' ?

Steve Jin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:34:17 GMT

I think that is for VCPU 0.

Steve JIN, VMware Engineering
Creator of VMware Infrastructure Java API: http://vijava.sf.net
VI Java API 2.0 --- 15 times faster than AXIS in loading, 4+ faster in deserialization; only 1/4 of the size required by AXIS. More importantly freedom to redistribute your applications.
Download, Samples, DocWiki, RSS Feed

Administration of my Virtual Machines made easy

Steve Jin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:29:25 GMT

Check out VMware Update Manager: http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/updatemanager.html

It can do more than you expect -- create baselines, and monitor the compliance status and automatically update the VMs.

Steve JIN, VMware Engineering
Creator of VMware Infrastructure Java API: http://vijava.sf.net/
VI Java API 2.0 --- 15 times faster than AXIS in loading, 4+ faster in deserialization; only 1/4 of the size required by AXIS. More importantly freedom to redistribute your applications.
Download, Samples, DocWiki, RSS Feed

Plugin to change VM hardware and reboot?

Steve Jin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:15:02 GMT

To reboot, you can use: Restart-VMGuest

To change hardware, it depends. You can have New-HardDisk, New-NetworkAdapter, etc. To list all the cmdlet, you can type:

Get-Command -PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core | more

To get detailed info on a cmdlet, you can type:

help <cmdlet_name> -full

Steve JIN, VMware Engineering
Creator of VI Java API: http://vijava.sf.net/

Can I add a wizard through the import operation as a plugin to the VI Client ?

c_shanklin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:56:05 GMT

That's not supported.

When VI 4 rolls around it should be possible to import OVF files through the API rather than having to rely on VI Client. In fact you'll have to do it that way because I don't think you'll be able to modify the UI's behavior in this respect.

Registering VI Client Plugin without a single line of code

Steve Jin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:45:41 GMT

This technote describes how to register and manage the VI Client plugin configuration using the MOB. Details steps and screenshots are included.

Cannot get CGI script to launch

Steve Jin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:39:37 GMT

Hi Paul,

I just tried the savesession.pl which saves a session file like the following:

#LWP-Cookies-1.0
Set-Cookie3: vmware_soap_session="\"52dc490b-a6e7-0e65-65a8-a926b924e72c\""; path="/"; domain=192.168.8.8; path_spec; discard; version=0

This is the format of the file that load_session() expects.

What you want to do is to parse the session id from the URL and replace the 52dc****72c in the above template, and replace the 192.168.8.8 with the IP address with the serviceURL you will parse from the URL. When you are done, just save it to a file.

Now you can use the saved session file in load_session() to login the VC server. Check out the VI Perl programming guide on page 35-36 for details.

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/viperltoolkit/viperl16/doc/viperl_proggd.pdf

Good luck!

Steve JIN, VMware Engineering
Creator of VI Java API: http://vijava.sf.net

Getting information from VC via Plugins

paul_xtravirt — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:18:05 GMT

Steve,

Thanks for helping!

If you found this helpful, please consider awarding points

VI Client Plug-ins Technical FAQs

c_shanklin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:58:20 GMT

Technical FAQs for VI Client Plug-ins

General

Q: What software is needed for developing VI Client Plug-in?
A: You will need VI infrastructure 3.5 and other software tools depending on the platform you use for development. For example, if you use a Java-based backend, you will need JDK, Tomcat (or other application server) and a related IDE.

Q: Does a VI Client Plug-in work without VC server?
A: No. VI Client Plug-ins require VC server.

Q: Can I develop or use a plug-in with VI 3.0 or earlier?
A: No. VI Client Plug-ins is a new feature (experimental) since VI 3.5 (VirtualCenter 2.5).

Q: Do I have to develop registration code to register my plug-in?
A: Registration utilities are available in Perl, Java, and PowerShell. You can take extend one of these examples or build your own from scratch.

Development

Q: Do I need to restart the VC server to activate a VI Client Plug-in?
A: No. Once you register a VI Client Plug-in via the registration API, it's available right away. When a VI Client Plug-in is registered, any active VI Clients will need to be restarted.

Q: Is it possible to show an extension point based on some attribute of the selected object?
A: Yes. You can do this by using the customAttribute tag in the configuration file with the extension point. For example,

<customAttribute name="Attr1">My VM</customAttribute>

Under this configuration, the extension point will only be available if the selected object has a custom attribute called Attr1 with the value "My VM".

Q: How can I get the name and IP address of the selected item?
A: You cannot get the information directly. However the VI client sends you enough information, including sessionId, moref, and serviceUrl, to retrieve them from the VC server. In fact, you can ask much more than name and IP address. See next question for more detail.

Q: How can I use the sessionID to login back to the VC server?
A: The sessionId is essentially an HTTP cookie. The following Java code shows how to use the session ID to share a login session with VI Client.

VimBindingStub vimStub = (VimBindingStub) vimService;
vimStub._setProperty(org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPConstants.HEADER_COOKIE, "vmware_soap_session=\"B3240D15-34DF-4BB8-B902-A844FDF42E85\"");

For more information, please check the tech note: Sharing sessions among multiple clients in VI SDK.

Q: Can I change the default size of the popup window?
A: No. The default popup window size is width - 714 pixels, Height - 601 pixels.

Q: Can I change the title of the popup window?
A: Yes. You can call window.external.SetTitle(title) using javascript to set the title.

Q: Can clicking a button in the popup window close the window?
A: No. This feature is planned for a future release.
Update: associate window.external.CloseWindow(); JavaScript with a button to close it.

Q: When I register my plug-in, some fields are empty. What are these fields used for?
A: These parameters are reserved for future use. Please provide empty values for these fields when registering your plug-in.

Troubleshooting

Q: How can I troubleshoot my plug-in?
A: First, make sure your configuration file is complies with the schema. You can validate your configuration file against the schema using a XML tool. Note that in some rare cases, the configuration looks fine in some XML editors, but fails due to invisible characters inserted by the editor into the configuration file. In such cases, we recommend using a plain text editor or a hex editor to examine every byte of the configuration file.
On the VI client machine, open a browser and verify the URLs in your configuration file are valid links.
Check the log file. See the next question for its location.

Q: Is there a log file available?
A: The VI Client log file has some debug information. The log files can be found in:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VMware\vpx

There might be several log files with names like viclient-?.log, where ? is a digit. viclient-index.xml file in the same directory indicates which file is the current active one: (a little math needed to subtract the NextIndex by 1.)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<LogSettings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="www.vmware.com">
  <MaxLogFiles>10</MaxLogFiles>
  <NextIndex>3</NextIndex>
</LogSettings>

Q: Some URLs open fine in my browser but don't work when I put them in my XML configuration file.
A: Since URLs are included inside the configuration XML file, any special characters within the URL string must be escaped. To avoid this problem, use the CDATA tag around the URL if it has any special characters. The following is a small sample showing how to wrap the URL string.

<url><![CDATA[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=3210+Porter,+Palo+Alto,+CA]]></url>

Internationalization and Localization

Q: How can I localize my VI Client Plug-in?
A: There are several different things you will need to do:

In the configuration file, find the title tag and provide all the locales you intend to support. For example, if you plan to support English and Chinese, then you should provide respective locale entries.

<title locale="en">VMware Communities</title>
<title locale="cn">VMware社区</title>

NOTE: there is no default locale, so you have to provide all the locale entries; otherwise the extension point won't show up.
If you are using a backend web application, it should parse the URL sent from VI client to get locale information and serve a page in that locale. The real URL that is going to be sent to the server could be:

http://dev:8000/vmAction.cgi?cmd=powerOn&moref=VirtualMachine:16&sessionId=9241E7B8-A37B-4264-A8D1-945628F9E0D6&locale=en&serviceUrl=https://localhost/sdk

Check the links on each localized page to make sure it links to corresponding localized pages as well.

Can no longer register a plug-in

jkyoutsey — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:18:38 GMT

HAH! It was notepad saving as UTF-8. Switched to ANSI and it worked!

how to creeate vm console

fhoffmann — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:56:31 GMT

You need to use the "VMwareRemoteConsole 2.5 Type Library"
COM ID: {A51B0CA2-1545-43AD-B66E-AD322009406C}\2.5\0\aximp

It's included in the VI-Client or in the ESX-WebAccess.

In VisualStudio (2003 -> 2008) create a new Windows-Form and rightclick in the Toolbox-window.
Select "choose element" (in german: Elemente auswählen), click on COM an search for "QuickMksAxCtl".

Greetings,
Florian

Cannot register a plugin to VC since applying Update 3

paul_xtravirt — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:12:53 GMT

Im using the IE8 beta with no download manager

Paul Davey

What about security?

Gabrie — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:32:45 GMT

Thanks

So, the plugins run at Virtual Center user permissions. What rights are needed to insert a plugin? Can just any user do this or is it only the administrator that can insert them into VC? And is it possible for the administrator to make the plugin run with fewer permissions?

http://www.GabesVirtualWorld.com

Embedding Webpage in Virtual Center - Bringing up a page depending on which host is highlighted

c_shanklin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:29:27 GMT

You can use either the custom attribute approach or just create an ordinary view that points at a page that will redirect to the appropriate host.

The custom attribute approach:
First define a custom attribute. Call it "HostID". Next populate the custom attribute on your hosts. Host 1 gets a HostID of "Host 1", Host 2 gets a HostID of "Host 2", etc. Then in your plugin XML you specify one view element for each of your hosts. The drawback here is that it only works for a fixed, known number of hosts, if you add a new host you need a new plugin XML, you need to re-register, etc.

As for the second approach I mentioned:
When you click on the custom tab a web request will be sent out that contains the managed object reference of the host in question. If you have an application that can take this value and determine what host it is, you can have this program redirect the browser to the appropriate page. The upside here is you don't have any manual steps when hosts are added or removed. The downside is it requires a bit of programming to make it work.

Modifying VI Client help?

bruce.downs — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:42:17 GMT

Does anyone know of a way to modify the VI Client help as part of the installation of an extension/plugin?

VI Client plug in authorization

bruce.downs — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:09:53 GMT

I've found that the following areas of the plug in architecture do not pass credentials to the web app. Web requests are made anonymously, so authorization is not available with the following actions:

1) XML configuration file - retrieving the XML configuration file on install or start up
2) Toolbar button icons - (Inventory.Global) - retrieving icon for button on start up
3) command's url with display=none - when executing a menu item (command) with the command's url display set to none

I should be able to get around this limitation, but it appears to be an overlook on the developer's part.

See attached test plug in configuration XML file and sample IIS log output. Note the test demonstrates the different command types and display=none not passing credentials.

Nested Commands not passing moref

bruce.downs — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:38:44 GMT

In developing a VI Client plugin I noticed that sub-menu items are not passing moref to my web app.

The following example defines a menu item and the same as a sub item. It is based on the official plug in documentation. The problem is that moref is only passed to the web app for the top level item, but not for nested command.

Ideas?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<scriptConfiguration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="D:\Dev\Virt\VIPlugin\vcplugin_config_20080328.xsd" version="0.9.0">
<key>com.configuresoft.viplugin-nesttest</key>
<description>VI Client Plug-In Nest Test</description>

<command parent="Inventory.VirtualMachine">
<title locale="en">PowerOn All VMs</title>
<url>http://vmbd-shcoll/CMRemote/CmVIPluginPortalDebug.asp?cmd=powerOn&vmname=All</url>
</command>

<command parent="Inventory.VirtualMachine">
<title locale="en">VM</title>
<command>
<title locale="en">PowerOn All VMs</title>
<url display="window">http://vmbd-shcoll/CMRemote/CmVIPluginPortalDebug.asp?cmd=powerOn&vmname=All</url>
</command>
</command>
</scriptConfiguration>

Toolbar Button (Inventory.Global)

bruce.downs — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:25:27 GMT

Currently the plug in schema does not allow for a toolbar button to launch into a browser. When defining a global <view>, I cannot specific the "display" for the url. I can, however, specify the URL's display when defining a <command>.

In the example below you see a global command and view, with only the command being displayed in a browser. I would like a toolbar button similar to the vmware.com button that launches in a browser rather than a 'window'.

Another issue is I cannot find out where a <command> with parent=Inventory.Global is displayed in the VI Client.

Ideas?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<scriptConfiguration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="D:\Dev\Virt\VIPlugin\vcplugin_config_20080328.xsd" version="0.9.0">
<key>com.configuresoft.viplugin-globaltoolbarbuttontest</key>
<description>VI Client Plug-In Global Toolbar Button Test</description>

<command parent="Inventory.Global">
<title locale="en">Configuresoft.com</title>
<url display="browser">http://www.configuresoft.com</url>
</command>

<view parent="Inventory.Global">
<title locale="en">Configuresoft.com</title>
<url>http://www.configuresoft.com</url>
<icon>http://www.configuresoft.com/favicon.ico</icon>
</view>
</scriptConfiguration>

VCPlugin shows up under "Manage Plugins..." but when selected to install, configuration xml file is opened in default xml viewer

c_shanklin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:35:05 GMT

Sorry about that confusion, we're working to get the sample fixed.

Java Plug-in Registration?

shars — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:29:58 GMT

Hi mrydeen,

Thanks for your help. I will try this and will let you know how it went.

-shars

VIC Plugins and Maps

c_shanklin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:40:10 GMT

Not possible at this time. Sorry for the delayed response.

Powershell Registration Utility Problem

c_shanklin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:39:19 GMT

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the long silence on this, I believe I also saw this in another forum and I'm not sure you got this one answered so I'll post here for the sake of it. If you're getting that message you should execute

add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

If you run this from an ordinary PowerShell this will be necessary (it also requires the VI Toolkit for Windows). If you launch a toolkit window directly it's not needed.

GUI based tool for plugin registration management

bparimi — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:39:23 GMT

Add a tab to the VI Client or Virtual Center Server

Texiwill — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:11:29 GMT

Hello,

Yes there is, you need to check out http://akutz.wordpress.com/ for some information on writing plugins.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Adding new object types to VIC navigation tree

c_shanklin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:58:28 GMT

chris.knowles wrote:Has anyone found a way to add new items to the nav pane in VIC? For example under a datacenter I want to be able to add a new object to represent a switch or a SAN array. I haven't been able to find a way to do this at this point and I am not sure if it is even possible.

There's no supported way to do this in the current version. We're looking to add this to a future version since this is the feature request we hear most often.

PowerShell registration utility for VI Client Plug-ins.

c_shanklin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:24:51 GMT

The attached script allows you to register a plugin with VirtualCenter using the VI Toolkit (for Windows).

You can either paste it into your PowerShell session window or you can "source" it into your environment using the . operator (i.e. ". .\registerExtension.ps1").

The script provides 3 functions,

Get-Plugin: List all installed plug-ins.
Remove-Plugin: Remove an installed plug-in.
New-Plugin: Define a new plug-in.

After registering a plug-in, log out of the VI Client (if you are logged into VirtualCenter) and log back in, and you should see your plug-in registered under the Plugins tab.

Chat Room Demo Resources

c_shanklin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:33:04 GMT

Details coming soon.

Limiting Snapshots - Plug-in?

akutz — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:59:15 GMT

In my opinion there is no reason this needs to be plug-in. The only
benefit would be having it pop up a message to the user once they made
their 4th snapshot. I'm not familiar with the 7 points to which you
refer.

document or guidelines for converting a viperltoolkit perl file into a cgi type file

c_shanklin — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:03:41 GMT

yiuyip wrote:This is a general question. To use a .pl file from the viperltoolkit in the context of a vi client plug-in, according to VMware, one needs to convert it into a .cgi file.
Is there any VMware document that describes how to do so or guidelines to do so?

Thanks,

There's no VMware document specific to this process.

To write a plug-in based in Perl you'll need to combine your knowledge of CGI programming with your knowledge of the VI SDK.

There are numerous online resources for CGI programming, but supporting this is outside the scope of help we can provide. If you need assistance programming to the VI SDK, there are numerous VMware resources available, such as our Perl developer community.

RE: accessing managed objects

yiuyip — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:53:55 GMT

From the manuals, it seems that there are two ways to access a managed object type/object type.

a) Use the existing methods for that managed object if such methods exist and apply.
b) use the Property Traversal methods described in Chapter 5 of the Programming guide if the methods in a) do not
exist.

Questions:

Does the overall design of the Managed Objects Methods/Traversal Methods require any ESX kernel driver to locate the
information or does it just happen in the user-mode methods/Traversal methods?

re: launching a sample viperltoolkit program from the simpledemo.xml plugin

yiuyip — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:53:19 GMT

***Note*** all issues have been resolved.

The cause of the failure to register this plugin is a syntax issue when the http is used inside an xml file.

In the simpledemo.xml file, instead of:

<url>http://15.13.183.184/cgi-bin/datacenterlisting.cgi?datacenter=Test_DataCenter_DS&server=15.13.183.231&username=administrator&password=Dallam</url>

it should be:

<url>http://15.13.183.184/cgi-bin/datacenterlisting.cgi?datacenter=Test_DataCenter_DS;server=15.13.183.231;username=administrator;password=Dallam</url>

When run directly from a browser, it accepts both "&" and ";" as separator for parameters.

But, when invoked from an xml file, only ";" are accepted.

re: Problems in installing the viperltookkit

c_shanklin — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:08:33 GMT

In case anyone else is having trouble, please make sure you install this version of the VI Perl Toolkit.

Get the example in VMware's documentation to work

tmadam — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:06:40 GMT

Hi Carter,

I too have now got it working, using my own C# registration code, but you might want to fix an error in the Getting Started with VI Client Plug-ins Tech Note which slowed me down. The type property of ExtensionServerInfo and ExtensionClientInfo is shown as "com.your_company_name.application_or_script_name" in Example 3 but it needs to be set to the fixed value of "com.vmware.vim.viClientScripts" as shown at point 3 on the page before. Thanks for the Java/PowerShell registration code which pointed me in the right direction.

Tim.

Quick start guide

c_shanklin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:00:05 GMT

Quick start with VI Client Plug-ins.

This document shows you a quick way to get started with VI Client Plug-ins. All that is required is downloading and running one of our registration utilities. Once you've done that, the Google Maps demo shown in the product documentation is available to you in VirtualCenter.

Step 1: Download a registration utility.

This document gives examples using either the Perl utility or the PowerShell utility.

Step 2: Register the plug-in.

When you install a plug-in, VirtualCenter must be able to download the plug-in XML. In this case, the plug-in XML is accessible from anywhere, which means you don't have to stage the XML on a local server before registering it.

If you use the Perl registration utility:

perl registerPlugin.pl --server=<vc server> --username user --password pass --description="Google Maps Plug-in" --key="com.vmware.cde.sdk.demo" --pluginversion="1.0.0" --pluginurl="http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/4860-102-1-3006/simpleDemo.xml" --company="test" --adminMail="test@test.com" --action=install

If you use the PowerShell registration utility:

New-Plugin -description "Google Maps Plug-in" -key com.vmware.cde.sdk.demo -version 1.0.0 -url "http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/4860-102-1-3006/simpleDemo.xml" -company test -adminEmail "test@test.com"

Step 3: Exit VI Client and log back in to VirtualCenter.

Step 4: Select a Datacenter and click on the MapIt tab.

You should now see a Google Maps interface.

Google Maps Demo XML File

c_shanklin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:51:22 GMT

Download and install give error "Invalid URI: URI is empty"

c_shanklin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:50:09 GMT

Thanks for the feedback, I updated the utilities to tell you to restart VI Client when a plug-in is registered.

Perl registration utility for VI Client Plug-ins

c_shanklin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:47:24 GMT

The attached script allows you to register a plug-in with VirtualCenter using the VI Perl Toolkit.

The script allows you to list, register and unregister plug-ins.

After registering a plug-in, log out of the VI Client (if you are logged into VirtualCenter) and log back in, and you should see your plug-in registered under the Plugins tab.

How official plugins compare to unofficial plugins...

akutz — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:39:37 GMT

A lot of people have been asking me how VMware's plugins compare to the architecture I unearthed. I wrote a blog for TechTarget that discusses this subject.

Sharing sessions among multiple clients in VI

c_shanklin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:18:33 GMT