Bootstrapping the JavaScript API

The vSphere Client loads plug-in resources in a tenant iframe. The plug-in must load a thin JavaScript library to support communication with the parent window in the vSphere Client. The library implements a JavaScript API that the plug-in front-end code uses to manage resources outside its iframe.

To bootstrap the Client Library the following script should be added to all HTML pages in the plug-in:

<script type="text/javascript"src="/api/ui/htmlClientSdk.js"></script>

After you load the script, you initialize the htmlClientSdk object, by invoking the htmlClientSdk.initialize() method. Before you initialize, you can only invoke the methods of the htmlClientSdk interface. After you initialize the htmlClientSdk object, you can invoke any of the methods in the JavaScript API.

If you use frameworks such as jQuery, or zone.js with Angular, you only need to initialize the htmlClientSdk object once. You should initialize as early as possible, so that the htmlClientSdk functions will be available to all plug-in user interface components.

Note: Do not use any communication method not provided by the APIs. Do not access any internal JavaScript or CSS resources of the vSphere Client. Doing so is unsupported because the implementation of the htmlClientSdk functions can change in future releases of the vSphere Client.