Extension Definitions

Extensibility is an important requirement for business applications built to follow custom processes in Line of Business (LoB) areas. In the cloud toolkit, a generic description of the extension points and extensions is provided without explicitly defining the contract. This a simple but powerful way to define extensions.

Extension Points

An extension point is the place in the core module, which is expected to be enhanced by particular custom created modules. It is a simple JSON formatted *.extensionpoint file and can be placed anywhere in your project.

{
    "extension-point": "/project1/extensionPoint1",
    "description": "Description for Extension Point 1"
}

Extensions

An extension is the plug-in in the custom module, which extends the core functionality. It is a simple JSON formatted *.extension file and can be placed anywhere in your project.

{
    "extension": "/project1/extension1",
    "extension-point": "/project1/extensionPoint1",
    "description": "Description for Extension 1"
}

Note

The 'extension' parameter above should point to a valid JavaScript module.

For a full example you can look at sample-ide-perspective.

Calling Extensions

Within the core module, you can iterate over the defined extensions and call theirs functions:

let extensions = extensionManager.getExtensions("/project1/extensionPoint1");
for (let i = 0; i < extensions.length; i++) {
    let extension = require(extensions[i]);
    response.println(extension.enhanceProcess());
}

In the code above, the extension is a JavaScript module (extension1.js) within the same project, and it has exposed an enhanceProcess() function.