Adding external tools to the IDE
You can add external tools to the IDE using these steps. When these steps are completed, a new externaltools.xml file is located under $HCIROOT/client.
Note: This feature is only supported from the GUI; otherwise, only the
default icon is used for the tools.
Supported icon formats include bmp, jpg, jpeg, png, and gif.
When an external tool is created, you can also add a script that runs bat and ksh scripts. With this functionality, you can create a tool that, for example, can start or stop a site.
You can create a bat file or create a new external tool. You can also add the bat file to the tool, and run the bat script in the IDE.
- Launch the IDE and change to the test site, for example, helloworld.
- Open the Client Preferences GUI and go to the External Tools tab. This tab has these columns: Tool Name, Path, Icon, and Category.
- Click Add Tool dialog box is displayed. All fields are required. . The
- Specify a Name. For example, Notepad.
- Click Path and navigate to the external tool. For example, %windir%\system32\notepad.exe. next to
- Select the tool’s .exe file and click .
- The Icon field is optional. If this is left blank, then a default icon is used.
- Select the image file and click .
- Open the list and select a category. You can also specify a new category in the field. Click . The new tool displays on the dialog box.
- Click Client Preferences dialog box. and on the
- You must restart the IDE for the changes to take effect.
- After restarting the IDE, the new category is now on the selected category's menu.