While testing the plug-in deployment features of Lotus Notes 8.x I needed some plug-ins to actually install. They needed to be small, not to have any dependencies on the platform as such as well as having a manageable, and known, dependency graph. Also I needed multiple versions to test installing different versions, upgrading and uninstalling. For this specific purpose I wrote a couple of very, very, very simple sidebar plug-ins (very simple – they just display the version of the plug-in) to play around with.
I now have two plug-ins packaged into two features – Feature 1 and Feature 2. Feature 1 depends on (a specific version of) Feature 2 which in turn doesn’t depend on anything else than the platform (Eclipse core). This means that I can test installing different versions of Feature 1 and verify that Feature 2 is also updated accordingly.
I have made these features publicly available so if you need something similar read on.
Feature dependencies
The below table shows the dependencies between the two test features provided. The table should be read so that Feature 1 v. 1.0.1 depends on Feature 2 v. 2.0.0 and Feature 1 v. 1.1.1 depends on Feature 2 v. 2.0.2.
| Feature 2 version | |||
| Feature 1 version | 2.0.0 | 2.0.1 | 2.0.2 |
| 1.0.0 | X | ||
| 1.0.1 | X | ||
| 1.0.2 | X | ||
| 1.1.0 | X | ||
| 1.1.1 | X | ||
Installing the features
You can test installation of the features in one of two ways. Either use an update site I provide or use the widget descriptors to install using a widget catalog or the My Widgets sidebar plug-in.
To use the update site point your Update Manager at http://update.lekkimworld.com/testplugins/site.xml and make sure that, when you install, untick the “Only show the latest version of a feature per update site” when selecting features.
Failure to do so will result in your only being able to see Feature 1 v. 1.1.1 and Feature 2 v. 2.0.2. Unticking the box will allow you to select any combination of features you would want to test.
To use the widget descriptors right-click and save the below widget descriptors to your system and use them directly by dragging them onto the My Widgets sidebar plug-in or import them into a widget catalog.
lekkimworld.com 
Hi Mikkel,
Could you please specify which ID should be used as the ‘palleteItem id’?
Is it the name of the feature in the eclipse update site?
so for example if the update site contains:
features–>
com.mycompnay.abc.feature_1.0.0
is that the name to use as the ‘palleteItem id’?
Thank you for your help.
Max
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Just invent something – it just has to be unique. This is why the ones that Notes auto-generates contains a random number.
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