Creating a Plug-In: Process Overview

Developing a plug-in solution can be simple or complex, depending on the needs of your environment and the application or platform to which the solution applies. A plug-in solution can involve any of the following segments of the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System environment:

• Working with variables and configuration templates

• Enabling users to browse through files and export those files to the master server

• Executing Java applications through the execJava feature

• Creating and modifying components and plans

• Packaging the plug-in and defining an interface for it through the plug-in XML

The general process that you follow includes the following steps:

1. Develop a general model for the platform or application.

   For more information, see Developing a Model.

2. Create plans and components to implement the model.

   For more information, see Creating Components and Plans

3. Define specific host types, host sets, and host searches to easily constrain the plug-in.

   For more information, see Limiting Hosts for a Plug-In.

4. Define an interface for the application within Sun N1 Service Provisioning System.

   For more information, see Defining a User Interface to the Plug-In.

5. Package the plans, components, resources, and interface definition into a Java Archive (JAR) file.

   For more information, see Packaging the Solution.

6. Test the plug-in.

   For more information, see Testing the Solution.