Extending the Administration Console

Archiving and Deploying Console Extensions

After you create a directory tree of source files and Java class files for your console extension, archive the directory tree in a JAR file and copy the JAR file into your WebLogic Server domain.

If you want to divide your console extensions into independently deployable components, you can create and deploy multiple archives that contain subsets of your extension. Each archive must contain all of the classes and portal framework files needed to render its own content. For example, if your extension modifies the Administration Console Look and Feel as well as adds portlets to the desktop, you can create one archive for the Look and Feel extension and another archive that contains the files needed to add your portlet to the desktop.

Archive and Deploy a Console Extension

To archive and deploy your console extension:

Archive your extension directory into a JAR file. The name of the JAR file has no programmatic significance, so choose a name that is descriptive for your purposes.

The contents of your root-dir directory must be the root of the archive; the root-dir directory name itself must not be in the archive. If you use the Java jar command to create the archive, enter the command from the root-dir directory. For example: c:\root-dir\> jar -cf my-extension.jar *

Copy the JAR file into each domain's domain-dir/console-ext directory, where domain-dir is the domain's root directory.

Restart the Administration Server for each domain.

Error Output During Deployment

If the Administration Console encounters deployment errors, it outputs error and warning messages to standard out and to the Administration Server's server log file.

If you do not see error or warning messages and you do not see your extension in the Administration Console, you might have named the wrong parent UI control in your netuix-extension.xml file. For example, if you name a parent UI control that does not render tabs for its children, then your extension is deployed but there is no menu control for accessing it.