ReadMe First

The VMware vSphere Web Client SDK allows you to extend vSphere Web Client with UI and server plugins.
Note: VWC refers to vSphere Web Client in this documentation.

Versions Compatibility

If you are upgrading from an older release please see the Release-Notes for a list of changes.

The VWC platform provides backward compatibility as follows:

• vSphere Web Client (VWC) works with two major vCenter Server releases: the current one and the previous one.
• VWC plugins and samples are supported going forward.

A plugin using 6.0 features won't get loaded in VWC 5.1 or 5.5 as long as its plugin-package dependency is set correctly. See the SDK Tutorial for more information.

Flex plugins built with SDK 5.1 or 5.5 that define their own proxy class must be updated in order to be compatible with Web Client 6.0. See the important proxy note in the Release Notes.

Content

The SDK package contains the following files:

• Release-Notes
• License Agreement
• vsphere-client-sdk-version: this SDK version and build number.
• /docs
  • SDK-Setup: development environment setup instructions.
  • SDK-Tutorial: introduction to Flex plugin development and the SDK Tools.
  • SDK-Samples: code samples included with the SDK.
  • Flex API docs: API documentation for the Flex UI library.
  • Java API docs: API documentation for the Java library.
  • ExtensionPoints: list of UI extension points.
  • FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions.
• /samples
  • helloworld, etc.: source and project files for the Flex plug-in examples described in SDK-Samples.
  • /build/plugin-packages: the packaged examples ready to be used with your vSphere Web Client server.
• /libs
  • vsphere-client-lib.swc: Flex library for UI plug-ins.
  • vsphere-client-lib.jar: Java library for server plug-ins.
  • Plus some common libraries used to build SDK samples (this avoids multiple copies in each project).
• /plugin-packages
  
  • Plugin packages for vSphere Web Client.
• /resources
  
  • Additional scripts and configuration files.
• /server
  
  • Virgo server environment for local development.
• /tools
  • Dev setup scripts (vCenter registration): scripts for vCenter Server registration.
  • /Eclipse plugin site: files to install the SDK Tools Eclipse plug-in.
  • /Other scripts: command-line Ant scripts to create new plug-in projects.

Getting Started

Please follow the instructions in SDK-Setup to setup your development environment. Then see the SDK-Tutorial to learn how to create your first plug-in.

The Web Client SDK Programming Guide documentation is available online at https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/webclient/index.html (both HTML and PDF versions).

See the UX Design Standards for vSphere Web Client for UX design guidelines and standards.

See the SDK samples documentation and import the projects in Eclipse to review the code and run each sample.

You can also run the samples right away by following these steps:

• Stop your vSphere Web Client server
• Copy 1 or more samples from /flex-samples/build/plugin-packages to your server's plugin-packages directory
• Restart your vSphere Web Client server
• Login to vSphere Web Client and select the various views described in SDK-samples
• Note: remember to remove the sample's plugin package later on if you switch to Eclipse to run it.

Getting Help

For questions not covered in the FAQs search the vSphere Web Client SDK forum. For questions related to other VMware APIs see the corresponding VMware community. Check also VMware announcements for future help resources.

Enjoy the SDK!

The vSphere Web Client Platform team