Building a plug-in for the Notes client is hard and you need to be a rocket scientist to write a simple menu extension. This is exactly, what I thought, when I first heard of plug-in development. In this session, you will learn, how to setup an Eclipse environment, connect it to your Notes Client for debugging and testing, and finally deploy your plugin to your users. Become familiar with the basics, and you will no longer be scared.

1. 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

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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

7. 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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Configure Expeditor Toolkit
• Set Target Location
– <ClientInstall>  framework  rcp  eclipse

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Configure Expeditor Toolkit
• 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

20. ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
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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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

34. ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
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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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• 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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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• Your project will look similar to the screenshot;
Extension section is empty

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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• Add Extension Points

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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• 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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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• Set the properties

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Create A Sidebar Plugin (cont)
• Write Java code

43. ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
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.

47. ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
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

50. ICON UK 2014 – Plugin Development
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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Create a new feature project
• Give your project a name
• Change other values to
your needs

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Create a new feature project
• 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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Create a new feature project
• 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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Your Workspace Should Look Like This

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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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Create Update Site Project
• Give your project a name

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Create Update Site Project
• Add feature(s)

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Create Update Site Project
• 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 1: Let the user install the plugin

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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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Option 3: Widget Catalog and Desktop Policy

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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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