Extending the FSToolkit via Extension Points

FSToolkit is based on the Eclipse platform and is being deployed to end-users as a set of plugins. FSToolkit is possible though to be extended through defined Extension Points. Above Figure shows this concept. There are three main Extension Points in FSToolkit. The IWoklflowEngine and the IProvisioningJobListener are used by plugins that are capable of handling provisioning of resources. The third extension point, the IOfficeRepository, can be used by resource providers and brokers to expose resources to the end-users, in order to create federation scenarios. A provider in order to support provisioning of resources, the extension point IProvisionResource of the Provisioning Engines must be implemented. For example, in the Amazon’s case a Plugin is built that is capable of transforming concepts of Amazon’s (ie VM types, regions) to an equivalent expression of Amazon’s in Office model. Moreover, the provisioning plugin via the IProvisionResource extension point propagates commands to the FCI layer. The FCI has then an implementation of wrapping commands to Amazon’s EC2 API.