Spotfire Developer Documentation

Spotfire Package Builder concepts

Throughout this documentation, Spotfire Package Builder uses these concepts and terms that you should understand in the context of the Spotfire environment.

Spotfire Package Builder terms Description
extension A piece of software adding functionality to Spotfire. It is made up of one or more DLLs and a module.xml. The module.xml file contains information about the included DLLs, as well as their names and version numbers.
package A file created from an extension, ready for deployment.
intended client You can develop an extension for a specific Spotfire client. For example, a model might be common to Spotfire Analyst and Spotfire Business Author, but the corresponding views can differ. Because all extensions are deployed to a Spotfire Server, the package containing the intended client for the extension must be specified in Spotfire Package Builder.

You have three options when you specify the intended client. You must specify the proper one.

  • Spotfire Any Client: Extensions without user interface logic. Typically, an extension providing models based on the Spotfire platform.
  • Spotfire Installed Client: Any Windows Forms user interface component.
  • Spotfire Web Client: Any web client user interface component.
intended platform When you develop extensions to be used with the Web Player, you can develop the extension for a specific platform, Windows or Linux.

There are different requirements on different platforms, and some functionality will not work on Linux. See the System Requirements for Spotfire Developer for more information.

deploying Uploading one or more packages to a Spotfire Server, making the functionality available to end users.
configuration A definition of the packages to be deployed. You can create multiple Spotfire Package Builder configurations for one or more extensions. For example, you might have different configurations for release and debug versions of your extension. After you define each configuration, you can add or remove projects that are appropriate for each configuration.
validation When the extension conforms to certain specifications, it validates. See Validate and deploy the packages for more information.