The object navigator is the primary navigation interface for reaching solutions and applications in the vSphere Web Client, and for finding and focusing on objects in the virtual infrastructure. You can extend the object navigator by creating new nodes and categories on each page. You can add both pointer nodes and object collection nodes to the object navigator control.
The object navigator control contains a collection of nodes, which can be simple pointers to global views and other solutions that can appear in the vSphere Web Client main workspace. Nodes can also be expandable collections for vSphere object types.
The object navigator home page appears when the user logs in to the vSphere Web Client, and contains a pointer node for the home screen, an entry point to your virtual infrastructure through vCenter Server, and pointer nodes for other major solutions in the vSphere Web Client. The object navigator Administration page appears when you click Administration on the vSphere Web Client home page. The Administration page contains categories and pointer nodes specific to that application. The object navigator vCenter Server page appears when the user browses the objects in the virtual infrastructure. On the vCenter Server page, the object navigator displays the available objects in the vSphere environment in collections, such as inventory tree nodes and inventory list nodes.
Extensions to the object navigator provide access to other extensions or areas of interest in the vSphere Web Client, such as global views and object workspaces. You create different object navigator extensions depending on what access you want to give to the user.
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You can add a pointer node to the object navigator that causes a global view extension to appear in the vSphere Web Client main workspace. Global views are generally consoles, dashboards, applications. A best practice is to create pointer node extensions on the object navigator home page only for major applications and solutions. You can create pointers to other global views and dashboards on the vSphere Web Client Home page. See Creating Home Screen Shortcuts. |
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The object navigator vCenter Server page organizes vSphere objects using object collection nodes called inventory lists. Each inventory list node is an aggregate collection of all objects of a particular type in the vSphere environment. The Virtual Machine inventory list, for example, is an object collection node that contains all Virtual Machines in the vSphere environment. Entity collection nodes are expandable lists. When the user clicks an object collection node, a list of every object in the collection appears in the object navigator control. The user can focus on any specific object in the collection to view the workspace and data views of that object. You can create an extension to add a new object collection node to the object navigator. A best practice is to add your object collection node to the object navigator vCenter Server page, and to create a new category for the object collection node. Object collection nodes rely on relation extensions to display information about that object type's relationship to other objects in the vSphere environment. |