iManager Plugin Development Process Tips

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By R Sathish

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Posted: 17 Aug 2004

R Sathish shares a handful of nice-to-know tips that will make your life easier when you develop iManager Plugins.

tip 1 - Session Timeout

iManager sessions time out in 30 minutes. This will be very annoying and requires frequent logins.

Change the default session time out in TOMCAT_HOME\conf\web.xml

<!-- ==================== Default Session Configuration ================= -->
  <!-- You can set the default session timeout (in minutes) for all newly   -->
  <!-- created sessions by modifying the value below.                       -->

    <session-config>
       <session-timeout>999999</session-timeout>
    </session-config>

tip 2 - Default Browser URL

The quickest way to launch your iManager is by making it the default browser URL.

Type http://localhost:8080/nps/iManager.html in your settings.

tip 3 - Bypass Apache

Do not use Apache unless it is necessary to test with it.
Every restart will require you to restart two processes in Linux.

tip 4 - Make iManager Reloadable

You can avoid the need to restart Tomcat after changing java code.
Make use of the Tomcat class loader's ability to reload classes–

Step 1 -Add this line to your TOMCAT_HOME\conf\server.xml

<!-- Define properties for each web application.  This is only needed
        if you want to set non-default properties, or have web application
        document roots in places other than the virtual host's appBase
        directory.  -->
<DefaultContext reloadable="true" />

Step 2 - Modify TOMCAT_HOME\conf \tomcat-users.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<tomcat-users>
  <role rolename="tomcat"/>
  <role rolename="role1"/>
  <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,manager"/>
  <user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1"/>
  <user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1"/>
</tomcat-users>

Step 3 - Make Reloader Shortcut

Make a new shortcut for "http://localhost:8080/manager/html/reload?path=/nps"

Step 4 - Execute the Shortcut

Save the passwords.

Note: you will need to relogin to NPS, but that still cuts out a lot of time in restarting Tomcat.
Tomcat's class loader does not understand JPDA Hot swapping!

tip 5 - Use Auto Form Fillers and Submitters

Avoid repeatedly typing your password and other credentials.

tip 6 - Use iManager Favorites

Bring all the tasks you are working on to Favorites.

Make favorites your starting page in iManager.

tip 7 - Change your Style of Deploying Patches

Style 1

Check out from Continuus
Change code
Build NPM
Deploy NPM
Restart tomcat/apache

Style 2

Java, Properties

Make work area modifiable
Launch Tomcat from IDE
Reload NPS
Reconcile to checkout changed code

JSP
Modify files under tomcat
Move files from tomcat to work area by scripts

JavaScript
Keep JavaScript in .js files and change them.

Style 1 requires that you make an NPM, deploy it , checkout from Continuus and restart from Tomcat for every changed LOC.

Any code - NPM needs to be built, deployed and Tomcat should be restarted.

Style 2 - Allows changing in the IDE. You can see the reduction in overhead.

Java - Reload NPS and relogin to iManager.
JSP - Tomcat recompiles the page; just reaccess the page.
JavaScript - Just reaccess the page.

Reader Comments

Last tip on avoiding build and using a direct checkout can be Generic without reference to Continuus as that makes little sense to those lot who have never heard of Continuus ... Madhan.

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