4.1

Role of Finder Objects
Finder objects identify and locate specific instances of managed object types in the plugged-in technology.
Orchestrator can modify and interact with objects that it finds in the plugged-in technology by running
workflows on the finder objects.
Every instance of a given managed object type in the plugged-in technology must have a unique identifier so
that Orchestrator finder objects can find them. The plugged-in technology provides the unique identifiers for
the object instances as strings. When a workflow runs, Orchestrator sets the unique identifiers of the objects
that it finds as workflow attribute values. Workflows that require an object of a given type as an input parameter
run on a specific instance of that type of object.
Finder objects that plug-ins add to the Orchestrator JavaScript API have the plug-in name as a prefix. For
example, the VirtualMachine managed object type from the vCenter Server API appears in Orchestrator as the
VC:VirtualMachine JavaScript type.
For example, Orchestrator accesses a specific VC:VirtualMachine instance through the vCenter Server plug-in
by implementing a finder object that uses the id attribute of the virtual machine as its unique identifier. You
can pass this object instance to workflow elements as attribute values.
An Orchestrator plug-in maps the objects from the plugged-in technology to equivalent Orchestrator finder
objects in the <finder> elements in the vso.xml file. The <finder> elements identify the method or function
from the plugged-in technology that obtains the unique identifier for a specific instance of an object. The
<finder> elements also define relations between objects, to find objects by the manner in which they relate to
other objects.
Finder objects appear in the Orchestrator Inventory tab under the plug-in that contains them.
Role of Scripting Objects
Scripting objects are JavaScript representations of objects from the plugged-in technology. Scripting objects
from plug-ins appear in the Orchestrator Javascript API and you can use them in scripted elements in
workflows and actions.
Scripting objects from plug-ins appear in the Orchestrator JavaScript API as JavaScript modules, types, and
classes. Most finder objects have a scripting object representation. The JavaScript classes can add methods and
attributes to the Orchestrator JavaScript API that represent the methods and attributes from objects from the
API of the plugged-in technology. The plugged-in technology provides the implementations of the objects,
types, classes, attributes, and methods independently of Orchestrator. For example, the vCenter Server plug-
in represents all the objects from the vCenter Server API as JavaScript objects in the Orchestrator JavaScript
API, with JavaScript representations of all the classes, methods and attributes that the vCenter Server API
defines. You can use the vCenter Server scripting classes and the methods and attributes they define in
Orchestrator scripted functions.
For example, the VirtualMachine managed object type from the vCenter Server API is found by the
VC:VirtualMachine finder and appears in the Orchestrator JavaScript API as the VcVirtualMachine JavaScript
class. The VcVirtualMachine JavaScript class in the Orchestrator JavaScript API defines all of the same methods
and attributes as the VirtualMachine managed object from the vCenter Server API.
An Orchestrator plug-in maps the objects, types, classes, attributes, and methods from the plugged-in
technology to equivalent Orchestrator JavaScript objects, types, classes, attributes, and methods in the
<scripting-objects> element in the vso.xml file.
vCenter Orchestrator Developer's Guide
144 VMware, Inc.