Remote Plug-in Multi-Manifest Support

You can create a remote plug-in capable of supporting different vSphere Client feature sets. To deploy this plug-in, you specify different manifest files to match the feature sets. The vSphere Client will choose a manifest compatible with the schema it supports.

You should use the multi-manifest feature when you want a single plug-in version to support different feature sets in the vSphere Client or different capabilities in the JavaScript API. The plug-in user interface code can check the existence of API methods or invoke

app.getClientInfo()

to determine which feature set the vSphere Client makes available.

Before 8.0 U3, it was possible for a multi manifest with a

vsphere.client

and/or

vcenter.server

requirements specification to be parsed and chosen for deployment, despite being incompatible with vSphere Client and/or vCenter Server requirements. This caused the plug-in to appear as Incompatible.

As of vSphere 8.0 U3, plug-in environment requirements are processed as part of plug-in manifest parsing and if they are not satisfied, parsing of the current file fails, causing the platform to try the subsequent plug-in manifest file in the queue.

Start by creating two or more manifest files, each conforming to the schema of a supported feature set. For instance,

plugin-80.json

excludes a feature deprecated in vSphere Client 7.0, while

plugin-70.json

includes that feature. After you test your manifest files separately, create a list of their file names as a JSON object named

manifests

and store it in a file named

plugin-multi-manifest.json

{
  "manifestVersion": "1.0.0",
  "manifests": [
    "plugin-80.json",
    "plugin-70.json",
    "plugin-67.json"
  ]
}

The

manifests

object conforms to a separate multi-manifest schema, such that the manifest parser treats it as an ordered list. The parser tries to validate each manifest file in turn for compatibility with

vsphere-ui

. The first file that conforms to the parser's standard manifest schema is the manifest that the vSphere Client uses for the plug-in.

Then create a zip file containing the

plugin-multi-manifest.json

file and the supported manifest files for different feature sets that the plug-in supports. All the files must be at the root of the zip file, rather than in subdirectories. The zip file can have any name you choose.

Finally, register the plug-in with a vCenter Server instance. Use the name of the zip file as the

--pluginUrl

argument to the registration script or as the

client.url

property in the vCenter Server extension record that your registration tool creates.

Multi-manifest support was added in vSphere 7.0 U1. To support versions before 7.0 U1 and a multi-manifest after 7.0 U1, you must add a manifest for all versions before 7.0 U1 in a

plugin.json

and place it inside of the Zip archive. This way, versions before 7.0 U1 use the

plugin.json

whereas versions after 7.0 U1 process the multi-manifest JSON. The first one that is parsed correctly will be used.

Remote Plug-in Topologies

Content feedback and comments

VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

Remote Plug-in Multi-Manifest Support