Custom Dashboard for VMware

It is certainly possible.

The trick is finding the actual object you want, and then wrapping it in your own object with the parameters to pass into the object as desired.

If you are on the dashboard, and you open up the right panel to the design tab, you can trace which components are used to make up that dashboard, as well as what parameters are passed in the context.

One thing which might be an issue is whether the component you want is marked as "public".  Public means that it can be linked to from other modules, including the custom module you create to hold your wrapper object.

You don't want to put your wrapper into the existing VMWare module, since it would then be overwritten during any upgrades.  However, you might have to mark the actual object you want to wrap as public, in order to link to it from a different module.

Did you create a new module and then copy the VMware objects to that new module?

I would generally do something like this:

Create a new module:

Configuration -> Definitions, in the uppper definitions window, scroll to the bottom, click the really small green + right below "Other User Definitions".

Enter a name such as "BrianVMwareModule" (no spaces, you'll see why later)

skip the rest, click OK

Create a sub-module under "BrianVMwareModule":

In the upper definitions window, find BrianVMwareModule, select the small down-triangle to it's right, select "add submodule"

Enter a name such as "VMwareCopies", skip the rest, click OK

Copy the Virtual Machine Quick View to the new VMwareCopies submodule:

Find the "Virtual Machine Quick View" object you want to use, might be "system:virtualvmw_monitoring.3"

Select the copy option on the Virtual Machine Quick View object, select "Deep Copy", from the selection list choose the VMwareCopies submodule under BrianVMwareModule, and say OK.

You now have a copy of the Virtual Machine Quick View object, along with all non-public objects underneath it, in the VMwareCopies submodule.

In Definitions, You can select the BrianVMwareModule, then add a new Grid view as the wrapper around the copied Virtual Machine Quick View object, and since that object is under the same module as your new view, you don't have to worry about it being public.   And if you decide you don't need it anymore, you can just delete the VMwareCopies submodule to get rid of all of the components.

Thanks, John, my own ideas were along that line, but didn't want to go down that long, complicated-looking route if it was a dead end.  I went into the Design mode, found the Virtual Machine Quick View option, chose Definition from the bottom, Inspected it and copied it.  Now I'm stuck with views I can't delete from within My Definitions!

(Probably due to the system - I've come across DefectID WCF-10256 before )

I'll keep at it.

Brian

A lot of progress, thanks John.

However, I'm stuck at the "add a new Grid view as the wrapper around the copied Virtual Machine Quick View object" bit - how do I do this?

As for your first question, no, I didn't create a new module prior to copying the VMware objects.

Cheers

Brian

Ah!  So not as easy as we were led to believe then!

Thanks, John, looks like we've got a lot more work to do then.

Brian