Spotfire Package Builder console concepts

Throughout this documentation, Spotfire Package Builder console 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 consists 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 with the extension .spk, ready for deployment.
package description	An XML file with the extension `.pkdesc` that contains all information needed to create a package file. For more information about the format, see Specification of a package.
distribution	A file with the extension .sdn, containing a set of packages or a set of other distributions, ready for deployment.
distribution description	An XML file with the extension .xml that contains information about what packages to include in a distribution file. For more information about the format, see Specification of a distribution file.
intended client	You can develop an extension for a specific Spotfire client. For example, a model might be common to the Spotfire installed client and to the Spotfire web client, 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 the package description. You have three options when you specify the intended client. You must specify the proper one. "Core", or the synonym "Any": Extensions without user interface logic. Typically, an extension providing models based on the Spotfire platform. "Forms", or the synonym "Professional": Any Windows Forms user interface component or other functionality that should only be deployed to the installed client. "Web": Any web client user interface component that should only be deployed to the web client.
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.