Hybrid plug-ins are plug-ins that include both Flex and HTML implementations of the user interface extensions. This type of plug-ins can be deployed to the vSphere Client and to the vSphere Web Client but the functionality that they provide works with some limitations.

You can create hybrid plug-ins that either include a Flex implementation of a portlet in an HTML plug-in, or convert an existing Flex plug-in to HTML without removing the Flex views.

To be able to use the same plug-in containing portlets with both Web applications, you can include a Flex and HTML implementations of the same portlet in the plugin.xml manifest file. For the Flex extension you must use the <namespace>.summarySectionViews extension points and for the HTML portlet you must use the <namespace>.summarySectionViews.html extension points. Make sure that you specify different extension IDs for both portlets in the manifest file. For more information about adding portlets to the Summary tab, see Creating Extensions to the Summary Tab for HTML portlets and Using the Summary Tab Template for Flex-based portlets.

You can also convert an existing Flex-based plug-in to HTML, but leave some of the Flex extension views. In this case the hybrid plug-in is in a transition mode. The plug-in functions correctly in the vSphere Web Client, but has limited functionality in the vSphere Client that cannot display the Flex-based extensions.

The SDK provides you with two options for combining HTML and Flex views in the same plug-in:

Adding two different UI implementation bundles in the same plug-in package, one that uses Flex, and one that uses HTML.

Including both Flex and HTML views in the same plug-in project.

You can use the wizard provided with the vSphere Web Client Tools Eclipse plug-in to create separate Flex and HTML projects. When you build both WAR files that contain the Flex and HTML UI modules, you must reference the bundles in the plugin-package.xml manifest file and include them in the same plug-in package ZIP file.

Note

Make sure that you specify different values to the Web-ContextPath header for each bundle MANIFEST.MF manifest file.

If you already have a Flex plug-in project and you have also an HTML project for developing HTML plug-ins, follow these guidelines to combine both projects into one:

In the Flex project, replace the war/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml file with the web.xml configuration from the HTML project.

Edit the webapp/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF manifest file to include the packages listed in the Import-Package header in the HTML project.

Add the webapp/WEB-INF/spring/bundle-context.xml file from the HTML plug-in project to the Flex project, if you use Java controllers.

Copy all CSS files, images, and JavaScript libraries under the webapp/assets folder in the Flex project.

Copy the HTML and JavaScript code under the webapp/resources folder by including the web-platform.js JavaScript APIs.

Add the HTML view extensions to the webapp/plugin.xml manifest file.

Modify your project build script to take into account the new files.