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Administering plugins
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Creating a plugin
- You can create a plugin as part of a maven build by using the car-maven-plugin.
- You can create a plugin "virtually" by installing a deployed application from a running Geronimo server acting as a plugin repository.
- You can create a plugin by using the Geronimo administration console to create or edit the plugin metadata.
By far the easiest way to build a Geronimo plugin is with maven using the car-maven-plugin. Any such module will include includes a geronimo-plugin.xml descriptor with at least minimal information. When possible, this information, such as the description and license imformation, this information is taken from the pom file itself. Normally, you will build the dependency list from the modules dependencies which that are constructed from the maven dependencies plus whatever additional dependencies the deployers deployer determine that are needed. For instance, an ejb application will have the openejb plugin added as a dependency by the openejb deployer. If necessary, you can specify the dependencies for both the module and plugin descriptor explicitly in the car-maven-plugin configuration.
Here's an example of a car-maven-plugin configuration using maven dependencies and configuring most of the additional information possible:
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As you use maven to build plugins, a geronimo-plugins.xml plugin catalog is automatically maintained in your local maven repository. You can force this to be rebuilt by running
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the following command:
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This might be necessary if you prune your maven repository and remove plugins listed in the catalog.
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The administration console also allows limited editing of the geronimo-plugin.xml files, but editing the information about how the plugin fits into the server is not yet supported.
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If the appropriate administration console plugin is installed (and your Geronimo server includes Web application support), you can install plugins from a plugin repository. After selecting the Plugins page from the navigation menu, select the plugin repository that you want, such as your local maven repository if you have been building your own plugins. Next, you will see a list of available plugins from the repository. Select multiple plugins using the checkboxes check boxes or a single plugin as a link, and on the next page you will see more information on about the plugins. On your approval the plugins will be downloaded and installed.
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You can also install a plugin into a new server assembly by using the car-maven-plugin.
Note that in all cases the dependency system assure that if you install a plugin, everything that is needed to run the plugin will also be installed. For instance, if you install a Java EE application plugin, such as one of the samples, into the framework server, openejb, openjpa, the transaction manager and connector framework, and the appropriate Web container will also be installed as dependencies.
Updating a plugin
At times, you may might need to upgrade a plugin or jar version , for instance if a new version of a dependency is released but you cannot rerelease without rereleasing all the artifacts that depend on it. Here are some methods to upgrade jar versions.
Simple jar upgrade
If you want to install the upgraded jar is to be installed as part of a plugin installation, see the section belowfollowing #Upgrading a jar while releasing a plugin section. Otherwise, follow these steps. use the following steps to upgrade the jar file:
- If the server is running, stop the server.
- Copy the new jar into the appropriate directory in your geronimo server's repository. For instance:
Code Block mkdir -p repository/org/foo/myjar/1.1/ cp ~/newFooJar/myjar-1.1.jar repository/org/foo/myjar/1.1/ Alternatively, you can use the administration console portlet Services->Repository can be used portlet on the administration console to add artifacts to the server's repository.
Finally, after the new jar is installed in the server's repository, add a line to var/config/artifact_aliases.properties (or the equivalent file, if the server is using a non-standard alias file) to configure the server to substitute the version for any old version dependency . For instance, to replace myjar-1.0.jar with myjar-1.1.jar, add the following line:
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With this configuration, the server will substitute myjar-1.1.jar for any myjar-1.0.jar dependency.
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If the jar is installed as part of a plugin installation, you can include configuration upgrade information in the geronimo-plugin.xml. During plugin installation, the upgraded jar will be automatically installed. This is the easiest way to specify in the car-maven-config configuration in the pom.xml, prior to building the plugin.
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