Creating plug-in lifecycle actions

As a developer, you may want your plug-in to perform certain tasks immediately after install and just before uninstall.

Many different types of tasks can make up these plug-in lifecycle actions, including the following examples:

• Post-install actions:

  • A sanity check
  • Additional setup
  • Adding the plug-in as an override of Zowe CLI Credential Manager

• Pre-uninstall actions:

  • Revert specialized setup
  • Removing the plug-in as an override of Zowe CLI Credential Manager

Creating and using lifecycle actions is optional, but they can be useful tools. Lifecycle actions can automate a manual process intended for the plug-in user to carry out. They can also avoid the need to create commands with uses limited to post-install and pre-uninstall tasks.

Note: When creating a plug-in to override Zowe CLI Credential Manager, it is necessary to implement a post-install action to configure your plug-in as the credential manager.

Implenting lifeycyle actions

Add the pluginLifeCycle property to your plug-in definition file and include a plug-in class to implement lifecycle functions.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the plug-in definition file.

   This file is the value for the configurationModule property in the plug-in package.json file.

   See this IImperativeConfig.ts file to view an example of the detailed format used in the plug-in definition file.

2. In the plug-in definition file, use the pluginLifeCycle property to add the path to the javascript file the plug-in uses to implement the class containing lifecycle functions.

   This plug-in lifecycle functions class extends the AbstractPluginLifeCycle class found in the Imperative package of utility functions.

3. In the plug-in lifecycle functions class you created, add instructions for both the postInstall and preUninstall functions.

   If implemented correctly, Zowe CLI calls the postInstall function of the plug-in immediately after the plug-in has been installed. Similarly, the preUninstall function is called immediately before the Zowe CLI uninstalls the plug-in.

Note: If your plug-in needs to perform an operation at only post-install or pre-uninstall, implement the other action to simply return to Zowe CLI without taking any action.