isabella232 / waveform_example_plugin

New Relic Waveform Plugin

Prerequisites

1. A New Relic account. Signup for a free account at http://newrelic.com
2. A configured Java Developer Kit (JDK) - version 1.6 or better
3. The Ant build tool - version 1.8 or better
4. Git

Installing the Java Plugin Agent

1. Download the latest release tag from the https://github.com/newrelic-platform/waveform_example_plugin/tags
2. Extract the archive to the location where you want to develop the plugin.

Assigning a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)

Your Java plugin will need a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). Your GUID should be similar to the reverse of a DNS name; for example: com.some_company.some_plugin_name. The last part of the GUID (some_plugin_name) will be the plugin name that appears in the New Relic menu bar.

Note: Keep the same name for your GUID for the life of your plugin, because the user interface and customer data are associated with this GUID.

1. Choose a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) for your plugin.

2. In a text editor, open Waveform.java and go to the following section:

    public class Waveform extends Agent {
    	super("_TYPE_YOUR_GUID_HERE_", "1.0.0");
    	...
    }
   

3. Replace the text _TYPE_YOUR_GUID_HERE_ in the file with your chosen GUID.

Building the Agent

After replacing the generic Waveform.java text with your GUID, build the Java plugin agent.

1. From your shell run: ant to build the Agent Plugin
2. A tar archive will be placed in the dist folder with the pattern waveform-X.Y.Z.tar.gz. The tar file will include a waveform jar and several configuration files. This is an example of a distributable file for a plugin.
3. Extract the tar file to a location where you want to run the plugin agent from.

Starting the Java plugin agent

1. Copy config/template_newrelic.properties to config/newrelic.properties
2. Edit config/newrelic.properties and replace YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE with your New Relic license key
3. From your shell run: java -jar waveform-*.jar
4. Look for error-free startup messages on stdout, such as "com.newrelic.metrics.publish.Runner setupAndRun" and "INFO: New Relic monitor started."
5. Wait a few minutes for New Relic to start processing the data sent from your agent.
6. Sign in to your New Relic account.
7. From the New Relic menu bar, look for the name of the agent that you just created (the some_plugin_name part of your GUID).
8. To view your plugin's summary page, click the plugin's name ("example").

Source Code

This plugin can be found at https://github.com/newrelic-platform/waveform_example_plugin

Contributing

You are welcome to send pull requests to us - however, by doing so you agree that you are granting New Relic a non-exclusive, non-revokable, no-cost license to use the code, algorithms, patents, and ideas in that code in our products if we so choose. You also agree the code is provided as-is and you provide no warranties as to its fitness or correctness for any purpose.