1 Introduction and Roadmap

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 Java EE 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 for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Document Scope and Audience
Guide to this Document
Related Documentation
New and Changed Features in This Release

Document Scope and Audience

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 Java EE 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 Java EE 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.

Guide to this Document

This chapter, Chapter 1, "Introduction and Roadmap," introduces the organization of this guide.
Chapter 2, "Understanding Administration Console Extensions," introduces the building blocks for creating Administration Console extensions.
Chapter 3, "Setting Up a Development Environment," describes how to set up your environment for developing Administration Console extensions.
Chapter 4, "Creating a Message Bundle," describes how to encapsulate the text that your extension displays into properties files that can be localized.
Chapter 5, "Rebranding the Administration Console," describes how to create a WebLogic Portal Look and Feel and deploy it as an Administration Console extension.
Chapter 6, "Adding Portlets and Navigation Controls," describes how to add portlets that contain simple, static content to the Administration Console.
Chapter 7, "Using Oracle Templates and JSP Tags," describes how to create an extension that uses the Administration Console's JSP templates, styles, and JSP tag library.
Chapter 8, "Adding Online Help for Console Extensions," tells how to create help for a console extension and merge that help into the main Administration Console help system.
Chapter 9, "Archiving and Deploying Console Extensions," describes how to deploy your extension.

New and Changed Features in This Release

In this release of WebLogic Server:

A sample Look and Feel is provided, which you can modify to create a custom Look and Feel for the Administration Console.
Online help can be created and associated with console extensions.

For a comprehensive listing of the new WebLogic Server features introduced in this release, see Oracle Fusion Middleware What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server.