One nice thing about the plug-in architecture we've released is how easy it is to do web-based mashups. This thread shows you how to insert a chat window into your VirtualCenter client that makes it possible for everyone who manages an instance of VirtualCenter to chat to each other in real-time.
This is all made really simple using Meebo Rooms. In this demo I've created a Meebo room devoted to VI Client Plug-ins, but you could just as easily create your own room specific to your team.
There are 2 parts to getting this demo up and running in your environment:
First, let's talk about installing the plug-in. The first thing to do is download chat.zip, attached to this document. This zip file contains 2 files, an XML file that defines the plug-in, and an HTML file that contains the Meebo Room. You can install these files to a local web server or you can install them to VirtualCenter.
If you choose to install them to a local web server, make a note of the address as you'll need it later.
If you choose to install the plug-in to VirtualCenter directly, simply extract the zip file to the %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\tomcat\webapps\ROOT directory. If you go the VirtualCenter route, here's a screenshot of what it will look like in the installation directory:
Next you'll need to customize the chatplugin.xml file to point to your web server. In the XML file there are a number of URLs that read http://SERVERADDRESS/chat/chat.html. You will need to replace these with the actual address. If you installed the plugin to VirtualCenter, the address to use is http://<your/ VC IP>:8086/chat/chat.html. Note that this uses http, not https and make note of the port number 8086.
Registering The Plug-in.
Now it't finally time to register the plug-in. To do this, you should download a registration utility available within this community. I used the PowerShell registration utility, and this is the exact command I used to register:
Here's a picture of what it looks like when everything goes right:
Admittedly this whole process of deploying a plug-in is a bit tricky, but this basic approach works for putting any kind of HTML page into VI Client, and opens a lot of possibilities, such as integrating with Google Apps, etc. Enjoy, and as you find new and exciting uses for plug-ins we hope you'll tell us all about them.
This is all made really simple using Meebo Rooms. In this demo I've created a Meebo room devoted to VI Client Plug-ins, but you could just as easily create your own room specific to your team.
There are 2 parts to getting this demo up and running in your environment:
- Install the plug-in to a local webserver, or to your VirtualCenter server.
- Register the plug-in.
First, let's talk about installing the plug-in. The first thing to do is download chat.zip, attached to this document. This zip file contains 2 files, an XML file that defines the plug-in, and an HTML file that contains the Meebo Room. You can install these files to a local web server or you can install them to VirtualCenter.
If you choose to install them to a local web server, make a note of the address as you'll need it later.
If you choose to install the plug-in to VirtualCenter directly, simply extract the zip file to the %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\tomcat\webapps\ROOT directory. If you go the VirtualCenter route, here's a screenshot of what it will look like in the installation directory:
Next you'll need to customize the chatplugin.xml file to point to your web server. In the XML file there are a number of URLs that read http://SERVERADDRESS/chat/chat.html. You will need to replace these with the actual address. If you installed the plugin to VirtualCenter, the address to use is http://<your/ VC IP>:8086/chat/chat.html. Note that this uses http, not https and make note of the port number 8086.
Registering The Plug-in.
Now it't finally time to register the plug-in. To do this, you should download a registration utility available within this community. I used the PowerShell registration utility, and this is the exact command I used to register:
get-vc 10.21.10.80
new-plugin -description "Chat" -key plugintoys.chat -version 1.0.0 -url http://10.21.10.80:8086/chat/chatplugin.xml -company VMware -adminEmail <a href="#">me@mailinator.com|mailto:me@mailinator.com</a>
Here's a picture of what it looks like when everything goes right:
Admittedly this whole process of deploying a plug-in is a bit tricky, but this basic approach works for putting any kind of HTML page into VI Client, and opens a lot of possibilities, such as integrating with Google Apps, etc. Enjoy, and as you find new and exciting uses for plug-ins we hope you'll tell us all about them.
