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Introduction
The WebSphere MQ Explorer is Eclipse based, and as such acquires all its functionality, and perspective information, through various plug-ins supplied with WebSphere MQ. To extend the WebSphere MQ Explorer you are required to write one, or more, Eclipse plug-ins. Through writing a plug-in we can extend the function of the WebSphere MQ Explorer in the following ways:
- Add further menu options to existing context menus and associate actions with them.
- Add tree nodes to the navigation view, and associated content pages.
When writing a plug-in, you will need to supply:
- The plugin.xml file
- Use the plugin.xml file to specify extension points. Extension points provide the means by which plug-in developers can extend the functionality of the WebSphere MQ Explorer. There are many types extension point available within the WebSphere MQ Explorer and Eclipse. Each type of extension point is used to extend the Explorer in a different way. Most extension points are associated with a Java™ jar file. For more information on the extension points available, see extension points.">Utilizing extension points.
- Java jar file
- Use Java jar files contain the classes that provide the code needed to implement the added functionality specified by the extension points declared in the plugin.xml file. Every Java jar file is associated with at least one extension point.
WebSphere MQ supplies sample Eclipse plug-ins called simple, and menu. The simple plug-in utilizes all the extension points provided in the WebSphere MQ Explorer to extend the Explorer in a number of basic ways. The simple plug-in can be used as a basis for writing your own Eclipse plug-ins. For instructions of how to import the simple plug-in, see Importing the simple Eclipse plug-in.
Parent topic:
Extending the WebSphere MQ Explorer
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