vSphere Web Client SDK Release Notes

Released 11 March 2014

This document contains the following information:

About the VMware vSphere Web Client SDK

The VMware vSphere Web Client SDK allows you to create extensions to the vSphere Web Client graphical user interface.

What's in this Release?

This is the 5.5 Update 1 release of the vSphere Web Client SDK, which adds the ability for you to write extensions using HTML and Javascript, including AJAX communications with Virgo server components.

New Features in 5.5 Update 1

The following features are new in the 5.5 Update 1 release:

  • The vSphere Web Client now supports HTML-based extensions as well as Flex-based extensions. The new HTML Bridge infrastructure integrates HTML and Javascript UI code in the client.
  • Ant build-flex.xml scripts now copy the .properties files into the war file's locales directory, next to the compiled resource .swf files. This allows future compatibility with the Web Client HTML platform.
  • This release adds the Java compiler option target="1.6" source="1.6" in build-java.xml script files, allowing plug-in compatibility with JRE 1.6, which is used by the Web Client.
  • The samples now include use of a proxy with the [InjectableProxy] tag to define a global proxy instance.
  • The vpshere-client-sdk/libs/ folder now contains a copy of 3rd party libraries gson-2.0.jar, vim25.jar, and Spring libraries to make it easier to reference those libraries from sample projects instead of duplicating them in each project.
  • This release includes various documentation updates, especially in the FAQs.

Problems Corrected in 5.5 Update 1

  • The "Add Chassis" action in the chassisRackVSphere-ui sample was missing the package com.vmware.samples.chassisRackVSphere.model from the MANIFEST.MF file. This problem has been corrected.
  • Removed Java APIs from the package com.vmware.vise.search which were added by mistake in the 5.5 release.

New Features as of the 5.5 Release

  • Support for organizing your actions into submenus beneath the default action menus, with separators.
  • Support for prioritizing and promoting actions in both action menus and the global action list.
  • New AdvancedMouseEvent that gives your extension access to right and middle mouse buttons.
  • You can now configure the UI Dispose Manager to garbage-collect objects only in certain namespaces.
  • Additional functionality for the DataException class, including the ability to use it in ActionScript.
  • The UserSession class has been extended to provide SAML token values to facilitate Single Sign-On authentication.
  • For user interface plug-ins using proxies, you must configure two default channels, amf and secure-amf, in services-config.xml and remote-config.xml.
  • Prefix the Web-ContextPath for all user interface plug-ins with the string vsphere-client/. For example, a plug-in named ChassisExtension must use a Web-ContextPath of vsphere-client/ChassisExtension. This will be required in the next major release.

Deprecated Features as of the 5.5 release

  • The class com.vmware.ui.lists.ColumnSetContainer is deprecated in this release. Add the extension template vsphere.core.inventorylist.objectCollectionTemplate and related templates to the plugin.xml to define column list extensions, as demonstrated in the chassis-app sample in the SDK.
  • The class vsphere.core.inventory.summaryViewTemplate is deprecated in this release. Use the extension point namespace.summaryViews to define a single view for the Summary tab.
  • The following categories of extensions to the object navigator interface for administrative use have been deprecated:
    • vsphere.core.navigator.adminAccess
    • vsphere.core.navigator.adminSignOn
    • vsphere.core.navigator.adminSolutions
    You can still add your own category extension beneath the "Administration" section.

For more detail about the changes in version 5.5 Update 1, see the file docs/Release-Notes.html in the SDK.

SDK Contents

The vSphere Web Client SDK includes the following directories:

  • docs - contains additional SDK documentation, including:
    • Detailed information on features, samples, and tools. See the file Release-Notes.html.
    • Setup, Tutorial, FAQs, and Samples.
    • API documentation for Flex and Java APIs, using ASDoc and JavaDoc.
  • libs - the Flex and Java libraries.
  • html-bridge - documentation and samples for HTML plugins
  • samples - various examples that use the different vSphere Web Client APIs.
  • resources - files used by build scripts.
  • tools - the Eclipse IDE plug-in to create new UI or Java plug-in projects.

The main focus of the vSphere Web Client SDK is the rich extensibility framework and the in-built Data Service. The actual client UI components are not part of the SDK. To create your own UI components for the vSphere Web Client, you can use common Flex libraries.

Be sure to check the VMware Communities forums for additional information and troubleshooting help.

Requirements

To create plug-in modules for the vSphere Web Client, your development environment must include the following items.

  • Eclipse IDE or SpringSource Tool Suite
  • Java JDK 1.7.0_17 or higher
  • Adobe Flash Builder 4.7
  • Flex SDK 4.6

For more detail about how to set up your development environment, see the SDK file docs/SDK-Setup.html.

Known Issues

The following is a list of known issues for the vSphere Web Client SDK.

  • Virgo log files are missing on Japanese OS installations. The work-around is to edit vSphereWebClient/configuration/serviceability.xml with a Hex editor, remove the first 3 invisible bytes (EF BB BF), and restart the server.