Creating your own plug-ins

IBM® eDiscovery Manager provides a sample export format with two plug-in points and related files that you can use as templates when you create your own export format plug-ins. The sample plug-ins demonstrate one way to implement an export format that exports content to PDF files.

About this task

An export format consists of two plug-ins: an Extract plugin and a BatchComplete plugin. The Extract plugin is called once per document immediately after the document is retrieved from the repository and saved to the file system. This is called the extract phase. The BatchComplete plugin is called once after a batch of 1,000 documents complete the extract phase. Your export format might consist of an Extract plugin, a BatchComplete plugin, or both, depending on your needs.

Prerequisite: eDiscovery Manager 2.2.1 is compiled with a Java 1.6 compiler. If you are using Java 1.7 or later to compile the export plug-in, you must set the javac option target ="1.6".

The sample plug-ins are located in the \plugins\samples subdirectory of the eDiscovery Manager installation directory. A README file and other related files for deploying the plug-ins are located in the same directory. Review the README file and the comments that are located in the other sample files for instructions on how to modify these files to create and deploy your own export format.

To create your own plug-in:

Procedure

  1. For each export format, give your plug-in its own class name and specify the signatures of the plug-in that you want to extend. Each plug-in must extend one or both of the following classes:
    • BatchCompletePlugin.java

      A plug-in that extends the BatchCompletePlugin class can only call methods in BatchCompletePlugin.java. It cannot call methods in ExtractPlugin.java and it cannot call methods inherited from the BaseExportPluginImpl class that the BatchCompletePlugin class extends.

    • ExtractPlugin.java

      A plug-in that extends the ExtractPlugin class can only call methods in ExtractPlugin.java. It cannot call methods in BatchCompletePlugin.java and it cannot call methods inherited from the BaseExportPluginImpl class that the ExtractPlugin class extends.

    Also, your plug-in can call methods in these additional classes:
    • ExtractedDocumentInfo.java
    • PluginException.java
    • ExportLogger.java
    • ExportPluginConstants.java
  2. Determine the configurable aspects of your plug-in and define names and values for plug-in parameters.
    If there are situations when you want to supply your plug-in with configuration data (for example, a server name or the path of a file), define plug-in parameters. Define plug-in parameters on the Export Formats pane of the Administration page of the eDiscovery Manager web client. Using plug-in parameters involves retrieving the values of plug-in parameters from within your plug-in by using the String getExportPluginParameter(String pluginParameterName) method.
    Important: If you distribute your plug-in to others, you need to provide eDiscovery administrators with the names and optional values for the plug-in parameters.
  3. Compile your code into a class (.class or .jar) file and place it in the plugins subdirectory of the eDiscovery Manager installation directory.
  4. Stop and restart the eDiscovery Manager application instance.
  5. Optional: Create an XML file that defines the export format, including any plug-in parameters it allows, according to the schema file export_config_format.xsd.

    This XML file can be used to import your format definition into eDiscovery Manager. See the sample provided in the \plugins\samples subdirectory of the eDiscovery Manager installation directory for more information about the contents of this file.

  6. Add or import your custom export format on the Export Formats pane of the Administration page of the eDiscovery Manager web client. See the "Configuring export formats" topic in the web client help system for complete details, including configuring the plug-in parameters.
  7. Test your export format by performing an export from the eDiscovery Manager web client and then checking the eDiscovery Manager work manager log file for success or failure messages. Search the log file by using your plug-in class names. By default, log files are stored in the logs subdirectory of the eDiscovery Manager installation directory, and the default name of the work manager log file is edmworkmgr#.log.