4.1

Create the Plug-In DAR Archive
The final stage in the creation of a plug-in is to create the DAR archive that you import to Orchestrator.
The DAR archive is a standard ZIP file that you rename to .dar. The DAR archive contains all of the elements
of the plug-in implementation and must adhere to a standard file and folder structure.
NOTE The source files of the solar system example application and solar system plug-in are provided for
reference purposes, so that you can see the details of the application that the solar system plug-in exposes and
of the plug-in implementation. If you import the ready-made o11nplugin-solarsystem.dar file to Orchestrator,
you do not need to build solar system application code or build the plug-in from the sources. However, if you
adapt the code of the solar system application or the solar system plug-in, you can rebuild the application and
the DAR file to incorporate your adaptations. See “Build the Solar System Application and Plug-In,” on
page 203.
Prerequisites
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Implement the plug-in adapter and factory interfaces.
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Implement the configuration adapter interface and create the configuration Web application.
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Map the application to Orchestrator objects in the vso.xml file.
Procedure
1 Create a working directory in which to create the DAR archive.
For example, create a directory named plugin_name.
2 Create a directory named VSO-INF at the root of the working directory.
3 Copy the vso.xml file to VSO-INF.
4 Create a directory named lib at the root of the working directory.
5 Add the JAR files containing the classes of the application to plug in and the classes of the plug-in adapter
and factory implementations to lib.
6 (Optional) Create a directory named webapps at the root of the working directory.
The webapps contains the WAR file of the configuration tab Web application.
7 Create a directory named resources at the root of the working directory.
8 (Optional) Create a directory named images in the resources directory.
The resources\images directory can contain icons to represent the different objects of the plugged-in
application in the Orchestrator Inventory view and selection dialog boxes.
9 (Optional) Create a directory named packages in the resources directory.
The resources\packages directory can contain packages of workflows, actions, policies, Web views, and
so on, that interact with the plugged-in application.
10 Create a ZIP archive that contains all of the preceding directories and files.
11 Rename the ZIP archive to
plugin_name .dar.
You created the DAR archive that contains a plug-in, and imported it to Orchestrator.
What to do next
You can access the objects of the plugged-in application in the Orchestrator inventory to perform operations
on them. You can also use the objects and methods that you mapped to the Orchestrator scripting API to create
workflows, actions, policies, Web views, and so on, to interact with the objects through the plug-in.
vCenter Orchestrator Developer's Guide
202 VMware, Inc.