Creating Action Extensions

In the vSphere Web Client, actions represent commands that the user can issue to manage, administer, or otherwise manipulate the objects in the vSphere environment. Each action in the vSphere Web Client is associated with one or more specific vSphere object types. For example, the user might perform an action to change the power state of a selected Virtual Machine object, or to cause a Host object to enter or exit maintenance mode.

You can extend the vSphere Web Client by adding new actions. You can add actions to existing vSphere objects, or create actions associated with a new type of vSphere object.

When you add an action extension to the vSphere Web Client user interface layer, you must also extend the vSphere Web Client service layer with a new Java service. The Java service is responsible for performing the action operation on the target vSphere object.

This chapter contains the following topics:

■	Use Cases for Adding an Action Extension

■	About the Actions Framework and Action Sets

■	Defining an Action Set

■	Defining Individual Actions in an Action Set

■	Using Command Classes To Handle Actions

■	Performing Action Operations on the vSphere Environment

■	Organizing Your Actions in the User Interface