Today we’re pleased to announce our second full update to the h5client fling. Once again, in case you missed it, this blog post helps introduce how to install the first version of the fling (These instructions should all still apply if you’re installing from scratch): http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/03/vsphere-html5-web-client-fling-getting-started.html

Update instructions are available at the fling page (Instruction’s tab): https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client

Updates

You can read more detailed notes about version 1.2 on the Fling page, but this week we want to highlight something very different: Avoiding dependency on the Client Integration Plugin (CIP). One of the new features this week is the ability to browse Datastores, and download a file. In the vSphere 6.0 Web Client, doing so required the installation and running of CIP, which has had its own problems, separate from the Flash runtime. File download has been implemented within the h5client without any external plugin dependency.

File download is only one of the features that requires CIP, so we still have a ways to go in order to remove all the dependencies on CIP, but we’re making this a strong goal. We are definitely interested to hear your feedback about this direction, and if you can preface your Feedback tool submissions with “CIP:” that would be very helpful too.

Separately, we’re also incredibly interested in learning more about your deployments. Please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey:

Of highest interest is learning more anyone that has deployed into Production in a large environment. Please include your email address in the survey so that we can contact you for further feedback.

New features in v1.2:

Browse files in a Datastore ([Datastore] -> Manage -> Files)

Download a file from a Datastore

URL redirects: your old bookmarked URLs now work, simplifying adoption of h5client. Examples (base URL only)

https://<h5client ip or domain name>/vsphere-client

https://<h5client ip or domain name>:9443/vsphere-client

Will now automatically redirect to the h5client standard:

https://<ip or domain name>:9443/ui

The port redirection requires running the “firewall.sh” script, which is step 5 in the updated fling Instructions

Interested in announcements and providing more feedback to VMware on this project? Sign up for our mailing list here: http://goo.gl/forms/IqGJ5twYHf

Dennis Lu & Vishwa Srikaanth

Product Managers, vSphere Web Client