Overview
The vSphere Client provides an extensible plug-in architecture which you can use to create custom solutions for your environment. Use the vSphere Client SDK to develop HTML plug-ins that are compatible with the vSphere Client.
- You can use the JavaScript libraries of your choice to develop the user interface components of your extensions.
- You can examine the sample HTML plug-in provided with the vSphere Client SDK. The sample demonstrates how you can add different extensions to the vSphere Client.
- You can create extensions to the Java service layer by using Java APIs provided in the SDK.
Accessing Data
Each global view extension is an independent HTML element that must communicate with the plug-in back-end service or the vSphere environment to retrieve data, or send commands, that the view requires. The vSphere Client SDK includes a JavaScript library that you can use when creating UI extensions. The JavaScript API provides access to user interface data such as a list of objects selected in the UI, locale of the vSphere Client, and navigation to a specified view.
The JavaScript code can use REST-based Ajax queries to retrieve data from the plug-in back-end service to retrieve data that the plug-in displays in the UI view. Alternatively, a user interface plug-in can redirect to another view by submitting HTML forms.