### Plug-In Studio

The Plug-In Studio enables you to design your task or property book page. It contains four main areas: Plug-In Fields, Plug-In Properties, Attributes, and Controls. Creating a plug-in involves four steps:

- Adding plug-in fields
- Creating the layout
- Setting plug-in properties
- Testing your plug-in
- Installing your plug-in

#### Adding Plug-In Fields

The Plug-In Fields area shows the labels and controls the user will see when using the plug-in. To add a new field, select the attribute that you want the field to modify from the Attributes area. The Controls area shows the controls that are available for the attribute you selected. Double click a control to add a new field to the Plug-In Fields area.

NOTE: If you are creating a create task, iManager automatically adds fields for mandatory attributes.

To change the control type, click the Change Control button on the right-hand side of the field.

To modify the properties of a field, such as whether a field is read-only, click the View or Modify Parameters on the right-hand side of the field. Some control types have mandatory properties that you must set. For example, the MVSelectBox control requires that you specify the values that will appear in the box.

To delete a field, click the Remove Field button on the right-hand side of the field.

#### Creating the Layout

To change the order of the fields, click the control and drag it to a new position in the list of fields.

You can specify that the label will appear above the control by checking the Labels Above Controls checkbox in the Plug-In Properties area.

#### Setting Plug-In Properties

In the Plug-In Properties area, specify the name of your plug-in.

To allow your plug-in to be used to edit multiple objects, check the Allow Multiple Object Editing checkbox.

##### Tasks

Specify the RBS collection your task will be installed to, and a role it will be associated with.

##### Property Book Pages

Specify a property book for your page.

In the Chapter field, select either an existing chapter or specify a new chapter. The existing chapters are those that are already exist for the property book you specified.

In the Object Type field, specify the types of objects that your page can modify.

#### Testing Your Plug-In

When you have added fields and set the properties for your plug-in, you can test it by clicking Preview. iManager will display a new browser window showing your plug-in as it will appear to the user. Click Cancel to close the preview window.

WARNING: Changes you make to an object using the preview of your plug-in are saved to the directory. If you need to test the plug-in beyond verifying the layout and testing the operation of the controls, you should use the Plug-In Studio in a non-production environment.

#### Installing Your Plug-In

When you have completed designing your plug-in, click Install. If you have specified all required properties and parameters, your custom plug-in is installed into the directory and saved in the /tomcat/webapps/nps/packages/custom.npm module file.

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