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Monthly Archives: July 2017

VMworld Hackathon Is Back

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VMworld Europe Hackathon 2016

VMworld Europe Hackathon 2016. Photo credit: Ray O’Farrell via Twitter.

Update 08/24: Please check out the logistics update.

Last year at VMworld in Las Vegas, we held our first VMware {code} hackathon, followed shortly by the repeat event at VMworld Europe in Barcelona. If you believe what people have been saying (e.g., here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here), the event perfectly encapsulated our “learn, code, connect” mantra, and a good time was had by all.

Some of the nice things about the event that stand out:

  • It’s open to experts and newbies alike.
  • You don’t actually need to know how to code to be a productive member of a team.
  • Ideas don’t have to be limited to VMware products.
  • Lots of socializing and forming new connections with colleagues and peers from around the world!

So, we’re doing it again this year!

When and where

At VMworld U.S. in Las Vegas, the hackathon will take place on Monday, August 28th, from 8pm to late at the Luxor.

Unlike last year, we ask both participants and guests to register via ScheduleBuilder. Active participants can then create or join a team and coordinate with their teammates using the Google spreadsheet.

We’ve increased the number of available seats significantly. There’s more space this year so more people can get involved. Make sure to sign up before we reach capacity.

Hackathon

  • Hackathon Event: 15 teams hack on ideas! [VMTN6722U]
    Rules to join the Hackathon: 1. Sign-up for this session. 2. Join a team or add a new idea and wait for others to join your team in this spreadsheet here. 3. You can coordinate with your fellow team members to determine what project you would like to do for your selected theme. 5. Register for VMware {code} and join the vmworld-hackathon group to discuss. 6. Have fun!
  • Hackathon Audience – Food, Drinks, and Cheering! [VMTN6723U]
    Didn’t get signed up for the Hackathon? Don’t like to code? Come cheer on your favorite teams, eat food, drink, win an Amazon Echo, and be merry.

Training sessions

Based on feedback we received last year, we’ve added a few introductory sessions to help those new to a particular topic get a productive start into the evening. These 90-minute sessions will take place immediately prior to the hackathon:

  • Hackathon Training: Getting started with Clarity [VMTN6719U]
    Want to learn how to design an awesome looking UI with the clarity framework? Bring your laptop and follow along as we go from zero to UI in this session and show how easy it is to use the VMware Open Source Clarity Framework to make your apps look awesome!
  • Hackathon Training: Integrating VMware API’s and Amazon Echo (Alexa) [VMTN6721U]
    Cody De Arkland, Senior Systems Engineer, SLED West, VMware
    Bring your laptop, GitHub account and your favorite IDE and learn how you can easily get started integrating your VMware environments with your Amazon Echo devices. We will take you on a magic carpet ride exploring Python, the Flask web framework, VMware API endpoints, Clarity, and Docker. By the end of this session, you’ll be a few steps closer to having your Homelab talk back to you!
  • Hackathon Training: Open Source Projects for Enterprise Cloud Native Applications [VMTN6718U]
    Haining Zhang, Chief Architect, VMware
    Bring your laptop and learn how to deploy, manage and develop cloud native applications with the latest VMware open source projects. Topics include VIC engine, Admiral, and Harbor.
  • Hackathon Training: Getting started with the vSphere Automation SDK for Python [VMTN6720U]
    Steve Trefethen, SDK Manager, VMware
    Bring your laptop, GitHub account and your favorite IDE and learn how you can easily get started with Python and the vSphere Automation SDK for Python, at the end of this session you will know the basics of python and using it to call the VMware vCenter API to perform some key tasks.

Agenda, rules, prizes etc.

We’ll have more details to share over the coming days and weeks.

VMware {code}fest

This year’s hackathon event is part of VMware {code}fest. Monday night marks the kick-off to four days of presentations, talks and opportunities to connect.

How to stay in the loop

Please follow @vmwarecode on Twitter. If you haven’t done so already, please make sure to join the VMware {code} program. Once you receive your personal Slack invite, go join the #vmworld-hackathon channel.

2016 event recap

For those who are new to the hackathon, here’s a nice recap of what went down at VMworld U.S. in Las  Vegas:

What about Barcelona?

Can‘t share details yet, but let‘s just say don‘t make evening plans for Monday, September 11th.

We’re still working on getting everything lined up and confirmed. Hope to have more info to share very soon!

Questions?

We’re here to answer any questions! Leave us a comment, find us on Slack or Twitter, and we’ll get back to you asap. Thanks, and see you all at the hackathon!

Bootstrapping JavaScript API

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This post was authored by Ina Uzunova, Product Owner of vSphere Client SDK

This blog post gives a brief overview of a new mechanism for JavaScript API bootstrapping introduced in vSphere 6.5 Update 1 and explains why you should take advantage of it.

In previous releases, the JavaScript APIs have been initialized through a custom file web-platform.js that must be included in your HTML plugin resources. Packaging the web-platform.js file in your plugin has two main disadvantages:

  • It uses a single shared global object for all plugins. As a result, other plugins that have an older version of that file, and are installed on the same vSphere environment where your plugin is installed, may override the same shared global object. This may impact your plugin’s functionality.
  • The file becomes part of your plugin package delivery. If you want to consume the latest bug fixes and improvements to JavaScript APIs provided in the next release, you need to update your copy of the web-platform.js to include these changes and release a new plugin version to your users.

The new JavaScript API bootstrapping mechanism is supported on vSphere 6.5 U1 and future releases. It is not supported on any previous vSphere release.

The mechanism is simple, yet powerful and easy to use. Instead of including the web-platform.js in your plugin package, you can access the same set of JS APIs by a single call:

this.webPlatform = window.parent.vSphereClientSDK.getWebPlatformApi(window);

For each call getWebPlatformApi(window) returns a unique JavaScript object, and you can access all existing JavaScript APIs through this object. For example, to close a dialog box using the new interface object:

this.webPlatform.closeDialog();

The advantages of this new bootstrapping mechanism are:

  • You no longer share a global object with other plugins and they cannot impact your plugin’s functionality.
  • Since you no longer need to include the web-platform.js file in your plugin package, any bug fixes and improvements to existing JavaScript APIs introduced in the next release, will be available transparently through the JavaScript interface object which you instantiated in your code. The fixes and improvements will be available at the moment the user upgrades to the vSphere release where they are introduced.

For more details please refer to the official documentation and the HTML Client SDK samples available from the \html-client-sdk\samples directory.

vSphere HTML Client SDK 6.5 Documentation and Tools Resources

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This blog gives a detailed overview of all existing vSphere HTML Client SDK 6.5 resources that you can use while developing an HTML plug-in.

Official SDK Release

vSphere HTML Client SDK is independent section of the vSphere Web Client SDK 6.5 deliverable. You can download the official vSphere Web Client SDK 6.5 from VMware code. It also contains references to the vSphere Web Client SDK Release Notes where you can find new vSphere HTML Client SDK features, known and resolved issues for each release.

vSphere HTML Client Documentation for 6.5 release is available in two flavors:

The vSphere Web Client SDK zip contains a /html-client-sdk/docs directory where JavaScript and Java APIs documentation resides. There you can find information about vSphere HTML Client SDK setup with IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse IDE, technical frequently asked questions and other info related to plug-in development.

General frequently asked questions are available from here.

To facilitate your vSphere HTML Client plug-in development, VMware UX team introduces UX Design Guidelines for vSphere Client (HTML5) in addition to the already existing design guidelines for the vSphere Flex Client.

Fling SDK Release

The HTML Client SDK Fling builds upon the latest officially released SDK to provide technical preview of newly developed features and to gather and address prompt feedback. The HTML Client SDK Fling build is available from the drop-down menu on the left hand side.

Screenshot Fling

Screenshot Fling

Each SDK Fling release has its own overview and release notes, available from the same drop down menu on the left. In addition, the HTML Client SDK Fling comes with a detailed “Getting Started with HTML Client SDK Fling” guide available from the SDK’s docs directory.

Screenshot docs directory

Screenshot docs directory

The HTML SDK Fling Release includes also a plug-in generator tool which helps you build HTML plug-ins.

For any questions regarding official or Fling SDK features, you can post a comment at the vSphere Web Client SDK Forum or search for already existing recommendation and guideline on our dedicated HTML Client SDK blog post section.

This post was authored by Ina Uzunova, Product Owner of vSphere Client SDK.

Workspace ONE Dev Center Is Live!

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We just launched the VMware Workspace ONE Dev Center on the VMware {code} website.

From the announcement on the VMware End-User Computing blog:

Developers and app enthusiasts rejoice! We are excited to announce that VMware {code}’s latest addition: the VMware Workspace ONE Dev Center! VMware {code} will now host a wealth of ongoing developer focused content and support for Workspace ONE and VMware AirWatch unified endpoint management (UEM) and enterprise mobility management (EMM).

As we look at customer’s top-of-mind IT initiatives and trends, we consistently see a need for enabling employees with consumer simple and secure experiences that drive productivity. The Workspace ONE Dev Center helps enable enterprise developers to easily add enterprise security and management features and improve the mobile app experience.
Within the Workspace ONE Dev Center, developers will find in-depth overviews of how to securely integrate their enterprise mobile apps with Workspace ONE for:

  • Single sign-on (SSO);
  • Application passcode;
  • App tunneling;
  • Data leakage protection; and
  • More.

The resource section will include sample code, product updates, tutorials and other developer-friendly documentation updated on an ongoing basis.

[…]

Continue reading the full post…

This is the first of several new dev centers to roll out over the coming months and part of our ongoing effort to make all of our developer resources easily available in one place.

Sign up for the VMware {code} program today and receive your personal Slack invite. We have well over 60 channels covering a broad range of topics, including a small but growing on around WorkspaceONE. Check it out!

Containers #101 Meetup: 06/22 Event Follow-Up

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We love to host events here at VMware HQ in Palo Alto, CA, but every once in a while it’s nice to help out with developer meetups at other locations.

Last month, we had the pleasure to attend the Containers #101 Meetup at JFrog HQ in Sunnyvale, CA, where attendees were treated to a really nice venue, great food, and three excellent talks. Let’s do this again soon, shall we?

Below the slides and the livestream recording. Enjoy!

First up was Ben Corrie (@bensdoings): “All you wanted to know about VMs and Containers but were too afraid to ask” (starts at around [0:03:23] in the video).

Next up, Bill Manning (Sr Solution Engineer at JFrog) gave an overview of the JFrog suite of offerings: “Quality Control and the Power of Promote” (starts at around [0:42:43] in the video).

And last but not least, Dan Garfield (Full-Stack Developer at Codefresh – a CI/CD for Docker and Kubernetes) shared his perspective on “containers as the center of the application development lifecycle”  (starts at around [1:02:50] in the video).

Here’s the video:

  • [0:03:23] Ben Corrie
  • [0:42:43] Bill Manning
  • [1:02:50] Dan Garfield

See you next time!

vSphere HTML SDK Sessions at VMworld 2017

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It is VMworld time again! This year VMworld will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada from 27th to 31st of August and in Barcelona, Spain from 11th to 14th of September. As always, it will be an incredible and inspiring event.

We have an exciting agenda for VMworld Las Vegas, 2017. Our team is delighted to announce that we will lead 3 sessions completely dedicated to the vSphere HTML Client SDK:

Plug-ins logo

Plug-ins logo

  • Acting as One: Plug in to vSphere is a panel discussion where key HTML SDK engineers will talk about how to develop, deploy and update vSphere HTML Client plug-ins, how to transition from Flex to HTML and what pitfalls you should avoid. We will provide guidelines for developing seamlessly integrated and easy to use HTML plug-ins and share details on the certification program introduced in vSphere 6.5. Prepare your questions and be ready for active participation.
  • Discuss Plugin Experience with the vSphere Client is a session where we will discuss how we can make your experience with vSphere management solutions better. We will give you details about upcoming improvements and let you share your thoughts on how deployment, upgrade and troubleshooting works for you today and what you want to see in future.
  • Journey to a vSphere HTML Client Ecosystem is a session where you can hear from Big Switch Networks about their experience with transitioning to HTML plug-in and the new vSphere HTML Client SDK. In addition, we will provide more details on future improvements and directions of the vSphere HTML Client SDK.

And this is not all!

We are working with solution architects to prepare a self-paced Hands on Lab called “Developing a vSphere Client plugin the easy way”. During this lab, you will learn how to build intuitive vSphere Client plugins from scratch, deploy them in development and in production environment and dive into vSphere Client extensibility mechanisms. The most experienced SDK engineers will lead the lab in person.

Acting as One: Plug in to vSphere session will be held at VMworld Barcelona, 2017 too.

We are looking for good and strong dialog with all vSphere Client plug-in developers, partners and customers and we are looking forward to seeing you at VMworld.

For more details about VMworld event refer to the official site or check the official content catalogue for VMworld US and content catalogue for VMworld Europe.

Yiting Jin, Ina Uzunova and the vSphere HTML Client SDK Team