Download an extension using CAST Extension Downloader

Introduction
With the GUI
With the CLI

Summary: This section provides information about how to download an official CAST AIP Extension or a custom extension built by a third-party (see What are extensions) using the CAST Extension Downloader

Introduction

The CAST Extension Downloader is bundled with CAST AIP Core and can be found at the root of the CAST AIP Core installation folder (ExtensionDownloader.exe).

If not already configured, CAST highly recommends that you ensure that the CAST Extension Downloader connects to the CAST Extend server (https://extendng.castsoftware.com:443/api). You can do so by using the Preferences option:

add or enable the CAST Extend server (https://extendng.castsoftware.com:443/api)
disable any other servers that may be enabled:

With the GUI

To download an extension using CAST Extension Downloader in GUI mode, please do as follows:

Launching the CAST Extension Downloader

The CAST Extension Downloader is located at the root of your CAST AIP installation folder. Double click this .exe file to launch the application:

Downloading an extension

The CAST Extension Downloader connects automatically to CAST Extend.

First you need to locate the extension you want to download.
In the menu shown below, ensure that the following two options are selected:
- the Latest versions only option (CAST recommends this option to filter out previous releases of extensions)
- the Long term support only option (CAST recommends this option to filter out pre-release or BETA releases - unless you want to use this type of extension)

Now click the Available option on the left hand side of the application - this option will display all extensions which you have not already downloaded:

All extensions matching the selected filtering options will now be displayed.
Scroll through to find the extension your require, or use the Search field to display only specific extensions matching the search string you enter. Selecting an extension in the list will display information about it in the right hand panel, highlighted in red below:

Ensure you take note of the required Dependencies as highlighted above - particularly the CAIP (CAST AIP) entry. The CAIP entry lists the AIP release the current extension is compatible with. Other Dependencies listed will be downloaded automatically at the same time as the extension you have chosen (for example, the AngularJS extension requires the HTML5/JavaScript and WBSLinker extensions, the most recent versions of which will be downloaded at the same time).
Click the Download button to start the download of the extension:

If you are connecting to a server that requires authentication, you will be presented with a login window. Enter the corresponding account credentials (User Name/Password) and then click the Login button to begin the download - you can find out about registering for a CAST Extend account in CAST Extend website.

Note once downloaded you may then need to install the extension before you can use it (this depends on the type of extension). This is explained in Install an extension.

Downloading a new version of an extension

The following section describes how to download a new version of an existing extension. For this example, we have already been using a version of the AngularJS extension and we want to install a new version to take advantage of bug fixes and new Quality Rules. To do so:

As shown in the image below, select:
1. the Updates option (this option displays all extensions that are available on the remote server that are a more recent version of an extension that has already been downloaded to the local machine)
2. the Latest versions only option (CAST recommends this option to filter out previous releases of extensions)
3. the Long term support only option (CAST recommends this option to filter out pre-release or BETA releases)

In the image above there is one extension available. This is a more recent version of the AngularJS extension that we have been using already with CAST AIP.
Select the required extension and click the Upgrade button:

If you are connecting to a server that requires authentication, you will be presented with a login window. Enter the corresponding account credentials (User Name/Password) and then click the Login button to begin the download - you can find out about registering for a CAST Extend account in CAST Extend website.

The new version of the extension will now download to the local machine. In the following image we can see that the newer version of the AngularJS extension (1.8.0) has been placed on disk in %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\Extensions along side the existing version:

Note that:

if any dependent extensions also have new versions available, the CAST Extension Downloader will download these automatically for you.
once downloaded you may then need to install the extension before you can use it (this depends on the type of extension). This is explained in Install an extension.

Where are Extensions downloaded to?

Extensions that are downloaded with the CAST Extension Downloader are downloaded to the following location on your local machine:

AIP 8.x

%PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\Extensions

Note that this location is not dependent on a release of CAST AIP, so the extensions can be installed in other releases of CAST AIP where supported.

Changing the download location and above

It is possible to modify the location that the CAST Extension Downloader will use to store the extensions. This can be advantageous in large deployments where there may be more than one installation of CAST AIP - using a network share allows all installations of CAST AIP to use the same versions of extensions:

Choose a shared network folder where the extensions will be stored, for example \\fs01\Extensions
In all installations of CAST AIP, modify the CastGlobalSettings.ini file (located at the root of the CAST AIP installation folder) to point on that folder: CAST_PLUGINS_ROOT_PATH=\\fs01\Extensions

With the CLI

CAST recommends using a batch script to run the CAST Extension Downloader in CLI mode.
Please see here for details of all CLI options and commands.

Download the most recent version of a specific extension on a specific remote server with authentication:

ExtensionDownloader.exe --server https://extendng.castsoftware.com:443/api --username JHU --password xxxxxx install com.castsoftware.test

Download a specific version of a specific extension on a specific remote server with authentication:

ExtensionDownloader.exe --server https://extendng.castsoftware.com:443/api --username JHU --password xxxxxx install com.castsoftware.test --version 1.2.0-funcrel

Download a specific version of a specific extension on a specific remote server with authentication and do not download any dependencies:

ExtensionDownloader.exe --server https://extendng.castsoftware.com:443/api --username JHU --password xxxxxx install com.castsoftware.test --version 1.2.0-funcrel --ignore-dependencies