System Administration

Register Plugin in Stewardship Tier

Once the plugin is created, it must be registered in the Stewardship Tier.

To register a plugin in the Stewardship Tier:

  1. Create a user area folder
  2. Register the plugin assembly
  3. Access Back End Authentication
  4. Register the plugin as an external page

Create User Area Folder

The User Area folder is a location for the plugin files on the application server.  During the installation of the Stewardship Tier, the base UserArea folder will be created as follows: [Stewardship Tier Install Directory]/Web/UserArea/[WebAppID]. [WebAppID] is the GUID specific to the WebApp.

To create a user area folder for the plugin:

  1. Locate or create a folder on the Stewardship Tier server that is the same name as WebApp ID of the application to which the plugin is to be registered.

  2. Create a sub folder called “Processes”.

  3. Copy the plugin assembly DLL files into the Processes folder.

For example,

[Stewardship Tier Install Directory]/Web/UserArea/9AC95B56-F805-4FC4-0000-590B05CD0E7C/Processes/myassembly.dll

Register the Plugin Assembly

A plugin assembly is the deployment container of one or many plugins. In the case of the Stewardship Tier plugins, a plugin assembly is a DLL created using a Microsoft .Net compiler (commonly Visual Studio). It is the plugin assembly that is registered in Stewardship Tier.

To register the plugin assembly:

  1. Select Admin > WebApps in the Navigation pane.
  2. Click the Plugins icon for the desired WEB APP NAME.
  3. Click Add.

    View the field descriptions for the Plugin Assemblies page

  4. Enter the plugin assembly name in the RELATIVE ASSEMBLY PATH field.

    NOTE: The RELATIVE ASSEMBLY PATH field displays the plugin assembly name relative to the UserArea\[WebAppID]\Processes folder, where UserArea is the Stewardship Tier folder on the application server where all assemblies are stored and WebAppID is the GUID specific to the WebApp. If the DLL is in the Processes folder, only the assembly name displays. If the DLL is in another folder or a sub-folder, the assembly name and the path display. For example, with an assembly called "myassembly.dll" located in the Processes folder, the Relatively Assembly Path displays "myassembly.dll." However, if that assembly was in a sub-folder called "bin," the Relative Assembly Path displays "bin\myassembly.dill."

  1. Click Save; all plugins within the plugin assembly are automatically registered to the Stewardship Tier. The remaining fields are populated from the DLL.
  2. Click the Plugins icon to verify that all plugins were created. If plugins are missing:
    • Check the assembly to be sure the Plugin Installer attributes were sent and that the plugin classes are Public.
    • Ensure the correct DLL file is referenced in the Relative Assembly Path.

Access Back End Authentication

If configured to use Back End Authentication, when the Plugin is executed from an event, the Stewardship Tier prompts the user for Authentication details (username and password) and stores these details for the current session of the user. In order for these authentication details to be accessed by the plugin, the following code and configuration must be implemented to access Back End Authentication.

To access Back End Authentication:

  1. Add the DependsOnExternalSystem(ExternalSystemType).SAP attribute for C#.

    OR

    Add the DependsOnExternalSystem(RuntimeModel.ExternalSystemType.SAP) attribute for Visual Basic .Net.

    NOTE: These attributes allow the Stewardship Tier to access the UserName and Password via properties on the Session.

  2. Enter the Back End Authentication details to access the user name and password entered by users through the Stewardship Tier’s Back End Authentication window. These details can be accessed from properties of the Host class.
  3. Enable Back End Authentication for the plugin. Refer to the Enable Back End Authentication section for more information.

Register Plugin as an External Page

Once the plugin is registered to Stewardship Tier, it must be registered to an event as an external page.

To register the plugin as an external page:

  1. Select Admin > WebApps in the Navigation pane.
  2. Click the Pages icon for the desired WEB APP NAME.
  3. Click the Events icon for the desired page DESCRIPTION.
  4. Click the Business Rules icon for the desired EVENT.
  5. Click Add.

    View the field descriptions for the Page Business Rules page

  6. Enter a value in the Priority field to determine the order the business rules run for the event.
  7. Select External Page from the PROCEDURE TYPE list box.
  8. Click Save; the Vertical View displays.

    View the field descriptions for the Page Business Rules page’s Vertical View

  9. Select the plugin from the WebApp Plugin Type Code list box.
  10. Enter a brief description of the plugin in the Comment field.
  11. Click Save.

NOTE: Additional fields can be configured for the external page. Refer to the Business Rules page for more information.