# What's New in the Extension Development Kit?

Release: WebLogic Workshop version 8.1 Service Pack 3

## What's New for Java Controls?

### Automatic Installation for Controls and Their Documentation

Workshop SP2 introduced automatic installation support for packaged 3rd-party controls. To take advantage of this support, the control must be packaged into a ZIP file with a specified format. This ZIP file may include control help files and control samples. Workshop also now supports a "control stub" file that appears to the user as an available control. If requested by the user, Workshop will initiate a download of a control deliverable from a URL specified in the stub. See the help topic Packaging Controls for details on the new control packaging and installation support.

Control help files can now be included in this ZIP file and will participate in the automatic installation process. The 3rd-party directory structure for help files has changed from 8.1.1 to accomodate this feature. Also, the toc.xml entries for 3rd party help are now under the "extensions" anchor. Please see the topic Help Authoring Guide for more details on integrating help in Workshop.

### Control Deliverable Format

Control deliverables are ZIP files expected to contain three top-level directories:

- controls — contains the control implementation JAR, and any dependency JARs
- help — documentation and Javadoc accompanying the control
- samples — samples that use the control

This control deliverable ZIP file is the same as what is produced by starting with a Control Deliverable project, adding some help and samples content files to the appropriate directories in the tree, and using the Build Control Deliverable command. By default, any JARs found in APP-INF/lib at build time are assumed to be required for the control and are bundled into the ZIP.

Note that only a single control implementation JAR can live in the controls folder of the ZIP file. Multiple controls, however, may be bundled into the control implementation JAR. For each application, when a user first tries to install the 3rd-party control into it, the control implementation JAR and all its dependency JARs will be copied to the application's Libraries folder.
The help directory must be organized in the following format:
help
doc
en (for English content)
partners
<vendor name>
java-class
javadoc-tag

ja (for Japanese content)
partners
...

The samples directory must be organized in the following format:
samples
partners
<vendor name>
sample1

## What's New for Integrating Documentation?

In order for your help files to participate fully in the WebLogic Workshop frameset, your topics must be include references to several JavaScript files and functions, as well as CSS stylesheets. To learn more about these requirements, see the Help Authoring Guide. Also, the Help Test Kit provides a way for you to test your help topics to ensure that they will integrate smoothly with WebLogic Workshop documentation. For more on the Kit, see the Extensibilty Portal.

Related Topics

None.