Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to love plug-in development - SNoUG 2014

Social Collaboration 39: "Vernetzte Informationswelt"
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How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love
Plugin Development
Heinz Ulrich Krause
BCC Unternehmensberatung GmbH
http://www.bcc.biz
IBM Client-Center, Zürich Altstetten, 13.11.2014

Social Collaboration 39: "Vernetzte Informationswelt“
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• Administrator /Developer seit 1993
• Senior Software Architect bei BCC
• OpenNTF Contributor
• IBM Champion 2011/2012/2013/2014
• Blog http://www.eknori.de
• Notes Forum (http://www.atnotes.de)

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Agenda
• Types of Plugins
• What‘s All The Parts Needed ?
• Setup The Development Environment
• Run / Debug Configuration
• Build a simple Menue extension
• Build a Sidebar Plug-In
• Working with existing code
• Extension Points
• Deploy Plug-Ins
• Plug-In Security

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It‘s only one way of doing it …
And I know there's a few to
demonstrate the theory

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No animals were harmed
* during the making of
this presentation !
* That part comes, when you download the slides from http://slideshare.net

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Types of Plug-Ins
• Adding new items to a menue bar or a context
menue
• Display data in the Sidebar
– Ralf Petter: Document Spy: Admins little helper
http://www.everythingaboutit.eu/2014/08/document-spy-admins-little-
helper.html
• Execute code when the client starts, after the user
has logged in or when the client has shut down.
– Karsten Lehmann: Mindoo Xulrunner Prefs.js Management Plugin
http://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/Mindoo%20Xulrunner
%20Prefs.js%20Management%20Plugin/summary

ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
Download,
Install,
Configure

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Download Eclipse SDK
https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/ganymede/sr2

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Download Expeditor Toolkit
IBM Lotus Expeditor Toolkit provides a complete, integrated set of tools that allows
you to develop, debug, test, package, and deploy client applications to IBM Lotus
Expeditor V6.2, IBM Lotus Symphony V1.2, and IBM Lotus Notes V8.5+
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/download/nochargesearch.jsp?q=Lotus+Expeditor+Toolkit+6.2

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Unpack Eclipse and Expeditor

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Install Eclipse
• Decompress into the
directory of your choice
• It is strongly recommended
to configure Eclipse with
the specific JVM that you
want
• Set the workspace
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/Installation#Configure_Eclipse_to_use_the_JVM

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Install Lotus Expeditor Toolkit in Eclipse

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Configure Expeditor Toolkit
• Configure Test Environment

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• Set Target Location
– <ClientInstall>  framework  rcp  eclipse

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• VM Name & Compiler Compliance Level is set
automatically. Leave as is …

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Configure Eclipse SDK
• Open „Plug-in Development“ perspective

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Configure Eclipse SDK
• Create Run Configuration(s)

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Create RunConfiguration / Main

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Create RunConfiguration / Select Plugins

Build Your
First Plugin

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Create A Simple Menue Plugin
• Add a new menue
• Add a new menue entry
• Display a message

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Create A New Plug-In Project
• Alt + Shift + n

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Plug-In Basic Configuration
• Give your Plug-In a
name
• Set the Provider
• Check „Generate an
activator …“

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Create From Template
• Select a template

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Your Workspace Should Look Like This

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Anatomy of a plugin
• The plugin.xml contains meta-
information for Eclipse, and contains
the extension points declared/used by
this plug-in
• The MANIFEST.MF is a standard Jar
manifest, but contains meta-
information used by Equinox, which is
Eclipse's internal OSGi engine. Although
there are specific entries in here for
Eclipse (such as Eclipse-LazyStart ) the
majority of entries here are standard
OSGi

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Anatomy of a plugin
• The Activator is run when your plug-in
starts, and before any other code that's
defined in your bundle is used. You can
use this to initialise data structures,
start listening to network sockets etc.
It's also got a call when Eclipse shuts
down
• Last (but not least), the SampleHandler
, which just prints out "Hello,
ConnectSCOTT2015" when you click
on the little blue Eclipse icon in the
toolbar.

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Source Code (SampleHandler.java)

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Create A New Run Configuration

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Assign Plug-ins to Launch Configuration

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Run / Launch Plug-In

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Debug Plug-In Code

Create A
Sidebar
Plug-In

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Create a SideBar Plugin
• Simple Sidebar Plug-In for
text snippets
• Content can be
– loaded from file
– saved to file
• Content is persistent between
sessions

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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• Create a new Plug-In
Project
– File  New  Plug-In Project
– Type in Project Name

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• Check „Generate An
Activator“
• Leave Defaults or set it to
a name of your choice.
• Depaends on how you
organize your code
• Click NEXT to use a wizard,
or FINISH to go do the
heavy lifting on your own

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• Your project will look similar to the screenshot;
Extension section is empty

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• Add Extension Points

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• Add category and view to
the „org.eclipse.ui.views“
extension
• Repeat steps for all other
extensions
– com.ibm.rcp.ui.shelfViews
– org.eclipse.ui.viewActions

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• Set the properties

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• Write Java code

Working
With
Existing
Projects

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Working with existing projects

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Import into Eclipse Workspace

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Plugin imported, but … ERRORS 
1. Go to the Build Path settings in the project properties.
2. Remove the JRE System Library
3. Add it back; Select "Add Library" and select the JRE
System Library.

Extension
Points

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Understanding Extension Points
• http://www.eclipsezone.com/eclipse/forums/t93753.
html?start=0

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Extension Point Description
• Select the extension point in the Extensions section
of the manifest and click „Show extension point
description“ . This will open a new tab with all the
information about the extension point

Plug-In
Provisioning

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Plug-In Provisioning Prerequisites
• Before we can install / deploy our plugin, we have to
do some additional work
– Create Feature Project
– Create Update Site Project
– Build Update Site content

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Create a new feature project
• An Eclipse feature project
contains features. A
feature describes a list of
plug-ins and other features
which can be understood
as a logical unit. It also
has a name, version
number and license
information assigned to it.
• A feature is described via a
feature.xml file
File  New  Feature Project

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• Give your project a name
• Change other values to
your needs

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• Select the plug-in(s) from
the list.
• You can type in the name
to easily navigate to the
plug-in.
• Click Finish and Eclipse
will create the feature
project.

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• If you are using Working
Sets, you will not see
the feature project
• Edit the current Working
Set and add the feature
project

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Create Update Site Project
• The Update Site contains
feature and plug-in
versions for Eclipse project
releases.

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• Give your project a name

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• Add feature(s)

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• Build the content

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Deploying Plugins
• Let the user deploy the plugin
• Deploy during client installation
• Deploy plugin via Widget Catalog and Desktop Policy

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Option 1: Let the user install the plugin

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Option 1: Let the user install the plugin
• „Install“ not enabled by default.
– customize plugin-customization.ini on client
• add com.ibm.notes.branding/enable.update.ui=true
• Disabled by Desktop Policy

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Option 2: Deploy during client installation
• Customizing Notes install for features and plug-ins
on Windows and Mac *
*

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Option 2: Deploy during client installation

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Option 3: Widget Catalog and Desktop Policy

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Create Update Site Database
• If you do not already have an
„Update Site“
• Create a new Update Site
– File  Application  new
– Check „Show advanced templates
– Select „Eclipse Update Site“

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Import Local UpdateSite into Database

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Install In Sidebar
• Get URL of the plug-in

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Install In Sidebar
• Tools  Widgets 
Getting Started with
Widgets  Features and
Plugins
• Paste the URL
• Click „Load“
• Check Feature to install
• Optionally provide an
image url

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Confirm Installation
• Select „Install plug-in“; Click „OK“
• The plug-in will be installed; Then restart the client

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Publish To Catalog
http://www-
01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSKTMJ_8.0.1/com.ibm.help.domino.admin.d
oc/DOC/H_CREATE_EXTENSION_XML_STEPS.html?cp=SSKTMJ_8.0.1%2F1-3-9-2-3

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Create Desktop Policy

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Configure Client Preferences
• Select the catagory of widgets that should be installed
on the client

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Sign Plugins
• End-to-End HOWTO guide for silently and
transparently provisioning and installing
Java extensions to Notes 8.5.1+ clients
using policies (Mikkel Heisterberg)
– http://lekkimworld.com/files/nllug/2009/demoscript_engl
ish_031120091142.pdf
• EntwicklerCamp 2011 - Signierung &
Verteilung von Plugins für den Notes Client
(René Winkelmeyer)
– Link

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Feedback gern auch per Email
ulrich_krause@bcc.biz
Fragen?

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Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to love plug-in development - SNoUG 2014

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