Adding External Tools

The External Tools section of the Navigation Panel in Enterprise Manager displays shortcuts to frequently used system utilities. You configure these shortcuts by editing externaltools.xml, located in the Enterprise Manager user settings directory. Because this file is copied from the Enterprise Manager installation directory into the user settings directory at first run, each user on the machine can configure it independently.

note

If externaltools.xml is not present in the user settings directory, copy it from <EM installation directory>\tools\externaltools.xml to <user home>\.enterpriseManager\externaltools.xml.

Supported Variables

You can use the following variables in the command attribute or parameter values. Enterprise Manager resolves these variables at runtime before running the tool.

Variable	Resolved value
[[SERVER]]	Current connected database server
[[DATABASE]]	Current connected database name
[[USER]]	Current logged-in user name
[[PASSWORD]]	Current user's encrypted password
[[EM_INSTALLDIR]]	Enterprise Manager installation directory
[[OPCON_INSTALLDIR]]	OpCon tools installation directory

XML Structure

Each entry in externaltools.xml is an <application> element. You can optionally group entries inside a <category> element.

Application attributes:

Attribute	Required	Description
name	Yes	Label shown in the Navigation Panel
command	Yes	Executable to run
icon	Yes	Relative or absolute path to a 16x16 PNG icon
os	Yes	Target operating system: win32, linux, macos, solaris, aix, or hpux

Use one or more <parameter value="..."/> child elements to pass arguments to the command.

Category attributes:

Attribute	Required	Description
name	Yes	Group label shown in the Navigation Panel
icon	Yes	Relative or absolute path to a 16x16 PNG icon

Add an External Tool

The following example adds Internet Information Services to the External Tools navigation list.

To add an external tool, complete the following steps:

1. Open <user home>\.enterpriseManager\externaltools.xml in a text editor.

2. Add an <application> element with the required attributes and any <parameter> child elements. For example:

   <application name="Internet Information Services"
       icon="icons/iis.png"
       os="win32"
       command="cmd.exe">
     <parameter value="/c"/>
     <parameter value="mmc.exe"/>
     <parameter value="%SystemRoot%/System32/inetsrv/iis.msc"/>
   </application>

3. Save externaltools.xml.

4. Create a 16x16 PNG icon for the new tool and place it in <EM installation directory>\tools\icons\.

5. Back up the existing <user home>\.enterpriseManager\externaltools.xml.

6. Copy the updated externaltools.xml to <user home>\.enterpriseManager\.

7. Close Enterprise Manager.

8. Open Enterprise Manager and go to External Tools in the Navigation Panel.

Result: The new entry appears in the External Tools list. Select it to confirm the tool opens correctly.