Terminology

• ContributionProvider: Class which extends the server plugins' org.eclipse.jmx.server.contribution extension point.
• Contribution: Classes that are instantiated by a ContributionProvider. Instances of Contribution reside solely on the server and are registered with the server's mbean registry as dynamic mbeans.

Server Side - Creating your own Contributor (Contribution Provider) plugin and Transport Layer

Simple, create a plugin and extend the org.eclipse.equinox.jmx.server.contribution extension point. Extending this extension point requires you to define a class that is derived from ContributionProvider (more explanation about deriving from this class will follow) and optionally declaring any classes which this contribution provider knows how to 'extend'.

The methods of note when deriving from ContributionProvider are the providesType(Object) and contributesType(Object); together these methods define what objects (children) of itself and/or other contribution providers children (or contributions' children) it knows how to expose for remote management.

By returning true for providesType(Object), it is assumed that createProvider(Object) returns a ContributionProvider that has been specialized with the object. By returning true for contributesType(Object), it is assumed that the provider knows how to expose the particular object for remote management but has no interest in extending that object for its own purposes.

Pluggable transport providers provide a means for users to provide their own network transport layer implementation and can be utilized by extending the org.eclipse.equinox.jmx.server.provider extension point. Currently, the project includes two transport plugins that users may use: apache xml-rpc (tested using jdk 1.4 on equinox foundation) or jdk5rmi (requires server to be running on jre 1.5+). The protocol that the transports use is what distinguishes them, and is a required field of the server's transport extension point. By default xmlrpc is used as a transport layer, this can be changed by setting the system property -Dorg.eclipse.equinox.jmx.server.protocol=xxxx prior to launching the application.

Client Side - Connecting and Viewing the Server's Exposed Resources

The client plugin contributes a perspective that is used to connect and view a server's exposed resources (object exposed by ContributionProviders). A walkthrough of connecting to the server is provided on the main page; what follows will be a brief explanation of the client transports. Like the server's transport extension point, the client also defines a similar transport extension point. By plugging in the transport that matches the one used by the server, a successful connection may be established. The connection dialog exposes the installed transport plugins and lists them alongside the host to connect to as the protocol to be used.

Architecture

The most important concept to understand when attempting to extend the functionality is the relationship between ContributionProvider -> Contribution -> ContributionProxy. A ContributionProvider is derived from Contribution, and Contribution classes know how to create a ContributionProxy. Instances of Contribution reside solely on the server and are registered as objects which may be remotely managed. In order to expose the functionality of a Contribution to clients, ContributionProxy instances are created which are a serialized representation of a Contribution.

TODO

• Dynamic view plugins for the client that are associated with a clients' Contribution, these custom views would replace the current view which displays an objects exposed operations and minimal description of its properties.
• Investigate exceptions w.r.t installing/uninstalling contribution providers during runtime - was unable to reproduce (Rob 04/28/2006).