The manual way of provisioning Carbon is dropping bundles and configuration files that belong to a feature. This method is not recommended since it can cause errors. Besides, finding the exact set of components and configuring files is a complex task. Components have inter-dependencies with other components. Some components depend on specific versions of other components.
As a result, to overcome these issues WSO2 has the Equinox P2 integrated with Carbon. It enables user-friendly provisioning capabilities by allowing users to download WSO2 Carbon or any other WSO2 product and simply extend them by installing various features.
When using Windows OS, you may not be able to install features using the management console if the '-Dcarbon.home' property in the product start up script (wso2server.bat) was not pointing to the directory where the product is installed. For example, -Dcarbon.home=C:\Users\VM\Desktop\wso2as-5.2.1.
Therefore, ensure that you set this property and restart the server before attempting to install features via the management console.
Follow the instructions below to install new features to any product of the WSO2 products stack:
- Log into the product's Management Console.
- On the Configure menu, click Features.
The Feature Management page will appear.
- Click Available Features.
- Select a relevant repository.
If no repositories have been added or the required repository is not available, add a new repository. For more information see, Adding a Repository.
- Some repositories contain multiple versions of features. If you are only interested in the latest versions, select the Show only the latest versions option.
- A feature category is a logical grouping of the features that constitute a particular Carbon based product. Select the Group features by category option enables you to easily view and select the entire list of features of a particular product at once. For more information, see Feature Categorization.
If you do not select this option when looking for features, you will see an uncategorized, flat feature list from which individual features can be selected separately. - Click Find Features. The available features will be listed.
Select the features you wish to install.
To find a particular feature, you can use the search function. Enter the name of a feature (or a part of the name) and press Enter.
This search will return only available features; excluding the ones already installed.
- Click Install.
- Verify the feature to be installed and click Next.
- Read and accept the terms of the license agreement.
- Click Next.
The installation process starts. It may take a few minutes to download the necessary components. - Once the installation process is complete, click Finish.
- Restart the server for the changes to take effect.
Based on the newly added features, you will be able to see the additional functionalities.
Viewing feature information
When features of a repository are loaded, you can install them or view the corresponding feature details.
To view feature details:
- Click on the respective "+" link to navigate to the feature.
- Click on the corresponding More Info link. The Feature Information page appears with the following information:
- Name
- Identifier
- Version
- Provider
- Description
- Copyright
- License Agreement