All home screen shortcut extensions must reference the vise.home.shortcuts extension point. The extension definition must provide an extension object of type com.vmware.vsphere.client.views.ShortcutSpec.

The following table lists the properties you set for the com.vmware.vsphere.client.views.ShortcutSpec object.

Property

Type

Description

<name>

string

String value that appears as the title for the shortcut on the vSphere Web Client home screen. The string can be hard-coded or a dynamic resource from your plug-in module.

<categoryUid>

string

Home screen category in which the shortcut extension appears. Home screen shortcut extensions must be added to one of the preexisting categories on the home screen. The following are valid values for the <categoryUid> property:

■

vsphere.core.controlcenter.inventoriesCategory for Inventories

■

vsphere.core.controlcenter.monitoringCategory for Monitoring

■

vsphere.core.controlcenter.administrationCategory for Administration

<icon>

string

Icon that appears for the shortcut. You can specify the icon as a dynamic resource from the resource SWF file in your plug-in module.

<targetViewUid>

string

Extension, such as a global view, object workspace, or other solution, that appears in the vSphere Web Client main workspace when the user clicks the shortcut. The value of <targetViewUid> property must match the <extension id="..."> attribute in the target extension definition.

Example: Example Home Screen Shortcut Extension

The following example shows an extension definition for a home screen shortcut extension. In the example, the <extendedPoint> element specifies the home screen shortcut extension point. The <object> element defines a data object of type com.vmware.vsphere.client.views.ShortcutSpec. 

<extension id = "mySolution.myPlugin.sampleGVShortcut">
    <extendedPoint>vise.home.shortcuts</extendedPoint>
    <object>
        <name>Sample Shortcut to Global View</name>
        <categoryUid>vsphere.core.controlcenter.inventoriesCategory</categoryUid>
        <icon>#{samplePluginImages:logo}</icon>
        <targetViewUid>mySolution.myPlugin.myConsoleApp</targetViewUid>
    </object>
</extension>

In the example, the <targetViewUid> property has the value mySolution.myPlugin.myConsoleApp. This value matches the extension ID of the example global view extension defined in Adding Global View Extensions. When the user clicks the shortcut created by the example extension, the mySolution.myPlugin.myConsoleApp extension appears in the vSphere Web Client main workspace, and the object navigator displays the appropriate pointer or virtual infrastructure node.