Administration Console extensions enable you to add content to the WebLogic Server Administration Console, replace content, and change the logos, styles and colors without modifying the files that are installed with WebLogic Server. For example, you can add content that provides custom monitoring and management facilities for your applications.
The Administration Console is a J2EE Web application that uses the WebLogic Portal framework, Apache Beehive, Apache Struts, Java Server Pages (JSP), and other standard technologies to render its user interface (UI) and content. It also uses the WebLogic Portal framework to enable extensions.
The following sections describe the contents and organization of this guide—Extending the Administration Console.
This document is a resource for software vendors who embed or rebrand WebLogic Server in their products, software vendors who develop security providers or other resources that extend the functionality of WebLogic Server, and J2EE application developers who want to provide custom monitoring and configuration features for their applications.
It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with using Java, JavaServer Pages, and Apache Struts or Apache Beehive to develop J2EE Web applications. This document emphasizes a hands-on approach to developing a limited but useful Administration Console extension. For information on applying Administration Console extensions to a broader set of management problems, refer to documents listed in Related Documentation.
This section provides links to documentation that describes the technologies used by the Administration Console. The more you understand these technologies, the more complex extensions you can create.
Because the Administration Console uses the WebLogic Portal® framework to render its user interface, the process of extending the Administration Console is similar to creating or editing an existing WebLogic Portal application. For information on the parts of the WebLogic Portal framework that are relevant to extending the Administration Console, see:
For information on JavaServer Pages, see JavaServer Pages Technology at.
For information on Apache Struts, see The Apache Struts Web Application Framework at.
For information on Apache Beehive, see.
This release introduces the following changes to console extensions:
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/beehive-netui-tags-template.tld" prefix="beehive-template" %>
As of this release, Administration Console extensions that use these third-party JSP tag libraries from the WebLogic Server installation must use pre-defined, absolute URIs to specify the tag libraries. For example:
<%@ taglib uri="http://beehive.apache.org/netui/tags-template-1.0" prefix="beehive-template" %>
The Administration Console's
web.xml file maps these URIs to tag libraries within the WebLogic Server installation. This mapping facility enables BEA to reorganize its installation directory without requiring you to change your JSPs.
.pinc) files are now called portal book files (
WebLogic Server 9.0 completely re-designed the WebLogic Server Administration Console. Because the new architecture is so different, WebLogic Administration Console extensions built for releases prior to WebLogic Server 9.0 will not function in 9.0 or later. Seein Extending the Administration Console for WebLogic Server 9.0.