Distribute plug-ins

Deliver your plug-in code to iSeries™ Navigator users by including it with your i5/OS^® applications.

The installation program for the application writes the plug-in's code binaries, registry file, and translatable resources to a folder in the iSeries server integrated file system. After completing this process, your end users can obtain the plug-in from the iSeries Access for Windows^® folder (with the help of an iSeries NetServer mapped network drive) using the iSeries Access for Windows Selective Setup program. Selective Setup copies your plug-in code to the user's machine, downloads the appropriate translatable resources based on the language settings on the user's PC, and runs the registry file to write your plug-in's registry information to the Windows registry. If you are not initially installed, you can also install plug-ins on the initial install using the custom option.

For this type of plug-in...	Install in this directory...	And include these files...
C++	/QIBM/USERDATA/OpNavPlugin/ <vendor>.<component> (To prevent installation without iSeries Access for Windows)	The registry file for the plug-in. The iSeries Access for Windows setup file for the plug-in. The ActiveX server DLL for the plug-in, and any associated code DLLs.
Java™	/QIBM/USERDATA/OpNavPlugin/ <vendor>.<component> (Java plug-ins require iSeries Access)	The registry file for the plug-in. The iSeries Access for Windows setup file for the plug-in. The Java JAR file contains all Java classes, HTML, .gif, PDML, PCML, and serialization files..
Visual Basic	/QIBM/USERDATA/OpNavPlugin/ <vendor>.<component> (VB plug-ins require iSeries Access for Windows)	The registry file for the plug-in. The iSeries Access for Windows setup file for the plug-in. The ActiveX server DLL for the plug-in, and any associated code DLLs.

Notes:

The <vendor>.<component> subdirectory must match the one specified in the registry file.
Support for the GUIPlugin location will be removed in a future release so you should migrate your plug-ins to the OpNavPlugin location.

Additionally, all plug-ins must create at least one directory below the <vendor>.<component> subdirectory called MRI29XX, where XX identifies a supported language. For example, MRI2924 (English). This directory should contain the correct national language version of the following items:

The resource DLL for the plug-in
The help files for the plug-in
The MRI setup file for the plug-in.

Upgrading or uninstalling the plug-in

After the users have installed your new plug-in, you may choose either to upgrade it at a later date or ship bug fixes. When the code is upgraded on the iSeries server, the iSeries Access Check Version program will detect that this process has occurred and automatically download the updates onto the users machines. iSeries Access for Windows also provides uninstall support, which lets your users completely remove the plug-in from their machines anytime they wish. Users can learn what plug-ins are installed on their machines by clicking on the Plug-ins tab on the iSeries Navigator Properties for an iSeries server.

Restricting access to the plug-in with system policies and Application Administration

If you provide a Windows policy template with your plug-in, you can also take advantage of Windows system policies to control which network users can install your plug-in. Additionally, you can use the iSeries server based Application Administration support in iSeries Navigator to control which users and user groups can access your plug-in.