The concept of a Developer Center was originally released in the VMware Cloud on AWS Cloud Console. It is a built-in, easy to access, central location for developers and automation specialists to view API documentation, access SDKs, view coding samples, and more. Since then, there has been a lot of usage and great feedback. Therefore, earlier this year, the Developer Center concept was extended into the vSphere Client as part of the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling. Just a short three months later, we have some of the biggest updates yet!
vSphere 6.7 Update 2
The first big update, as of vSphere 6.7 Update 2, the Developer Center is now natively available in the vSphere Client! This continues the trend of features and options first appearing in the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling, then being introduced to the generally available vSphere Client. The Developer Center available in vSphere 6.7 Update 2 offers two main features, API Explorer and Code Capture.
The API Explorer has been around since the vSphere 6.5 release. It allows us to browse and interact with the vSphere Automation REST APIs. However, it was available at a separate HTTP endpoint on the vCenter Server instead of being available inside the vSphere Client. The API Explorer being built-in allows us to add a couple features. First, we’re automatically logged in and will not have to separately authenticate. Second, we can access several different vCenter Servers when Linked Mode has been configured. Third, because of the way it has been integrated, we can also filter for specific words or terms.
Code Capture is also something that has been around for quite some time, perhaps better known as Onyx. Code Capture gives us the option to record actions performed in the vSphere Client and output code. This code is actionable and can be used on a local system to reproduce those tasks. The code is also produced in a language which is known as low-level PowerCLI. This means that instead of the high-level PowerCLI cmdlets you may be used to using, like Get-VM or Get-VMHost, the output is .NET based and will interact directly with the vSphere API services.
vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling Version 4.2
The second big update is with the release of version 4.2 of the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling. This new version adds a very much requested option to Code Capture, new language support options! We can now record our actions and change the code output to be available in low-level PowerCLI, Javascript, and Python! There has also been an update to allow Code Capture to display tasks involving Content Library management.
Summary
There are some exciting new updates for the vSphere Client Developer Center. As of vSphere 6.7 Update 2, the Developer Center is now generally available in the vSphere Client. Also, version 4.2 of the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling has one of the most requested additional features for Code Capture – support for additional languages. That means that Code Capture can now produce code in low-level PowerCLI, Javascript, and Python!
Make sure to update to vSphere 6.7 Update 2 and version 4.2 of the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling and let us know in the comments what you would like us to add to the Developer Center next!
