Roll out new iManager Plugin

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By R Sathish

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Posted: 16 Nov 2004

Your next plugin need not be built from scratch, nor do you need to scale down an existing workarea. This article provides and explains a working generic XY plugin which you can build from.

XY_plugin~rsathish.zip provides the base where you can easily add:

Java classes in src/com/novell/admin/xy
Utility classes in src/com/novell/admin/xyutils
Javascripts in xy/javascripts
JSPs in xy/npm/portal/modules/xy/skins/default/devices/default

Features of XY_plugin~rsathish.zip

Directories for adding Java, Jsp, XML, HTML help, Properties, Java scripts
Simple placeholder files in those directories
Build script for making a robust npm
Support for iManager tag libraries

Unzip XY_plugin~rsathish.zip.
You will see these directories and files:

Unzip xy_plugin.zip
You will see these files in xy_plugin.

Change "xy" to a new plugin name.

The plugins ant build script guarantees the creation of iManager 2.5.0 compliant NPMs. I made a batch file for doing the necessary renames.

>Files.bat "plugin_id_small" "plugin_id_caps"

Create a new project in VCS using migrate.

CCM migrate provides the best way to create a new continuus project. You will save lot of time in creating directories and files. You should use a similar command for CVS.

CM Synergy -> Tools -> Migrate

Build the new plugin

Enter xy_plugin\build scripts
Execute build.bat

You will get XY.npm in xy_plugin directory and the directory structure will be as follows:

Install XY.npm in iManager

The generated XY.npm will have minimal files for successful deployment of the new plugin.

Configure -> Module Installation -> Available Novell plugin modules -> New
Install
Restart Tomcat
Configure -> Role Based Services -> RBS Configuration -> Select the container -> Install

Figure 1 XY.npm and XY.jar listings