Use Cases for Extending the Object Navigator
Extensions to the object navigator provide access to other extensions or areas of interest in the vSphere Web Client, such as global views and object workspaces. You create different object navigator extensions depending on what access you want to give the user.
Global Views
You can add a pointer node to the object navigator that causes a global view extension to appear in the vSphere Web Client main workspace. Global views are generally consoles, dashboards, applications. A best practice is to create pointer node extensions on the object navigator home page only for major applications and solutions. You can create pointers to other global views and dashboards on the vSphere Web Client Home screen. See Creating Home Screen Shortcuts.
Object Collections
The object navigator vCenter page organizes vSphere objects using object collection nodes called inventory lists. Each inventory list node is an aggregate collection of all objects of a particular type in the vSphere environment. The Virtual Machine inventory list, for example, is an object collection node that contains all Virtual Machines in the vSphere environment.
Entity collection nodes are expandable lists. When the user clicks an object collection node, a list of every object in the collection appears in the object navigator control. The user can focus on any specific object in the collection to view that object’s workspace and data views.
You can create an extension to add a new object collection node to the object navigator. A best practice is to add your object collection node to the object navigator vCenter page, and to create a new category for the object collection node.
Object collection nodes rely on relation extensions to display information about that object type’s relationship to other objects in the vSphere environment. See Creating a New Relation Between vSphere Objects.
Help us improve this information. Send feedback to [email protected].