Creating extensions to the Spotfire platform

Use the following procedure to extend Spotfire with custom capabilities. This procedure is an overview of all of the tasks required to create, build, debug, and deploy a Spotfire extension.

Before you begin

You must have a supported version of Visual Studio installed and configured for a Spotfire client.
You must have access to Spotfire Package Builder. See Spotfire Package Builder for more information.
You must have the Spotfire Windows application installed on your computer.
You must have administration access to Spotfire Server to deploy packages.

Extending the Spotfire platform is a straightforward procedure based on the extension mechanism:

Break down the problem and determine the appropriate extension points to use.
Register an extension for each point.
Implement the base classes tied to the respective extension points.

About this task

See Creating an extension using only Visual Studio for detailed instructions of the recommended way to develop extensions.

When the package is built, add the package file to a suitable deployment area from Deployments & Packages in the Spotfire Server web administration pages.

If you instead want to use the deprecated graphical Package Builder tool, you must switch between the different environments, as outlined below.

Procedure

In Visual Studio, open an existing extension or create a new extension, and build it.
If you are creating a new extension, use the Spotfire® extension template.
In Package Builder, add the extension to a configuration that includes the default Spotfire client.
In Visual Studio, develop and debug the extension.
In Package Builder, build a Spotfire Package file containing the extension.

Results

After deployment on the server, users will be prompted to download updates when they start their clients and access the server. If the end user accepts the prompt, the extension is downloaded to the client computer, the client is restarted and the extension is loaded into the running Spotfire instance.