The node XML for the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 console is defined in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\XmlStorage\ConsoleRoot\AdminConsole.XML. Your extension node XML files, however, are placed in the folder AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Nodes\GUID, where GUID is the namespace GUID identifier for the parent node.

The following XML is used to load the namespace object viewer into the Configuration Manager 2007 console. It demonstrates the hierarchical nature of nodes and also shows how a query is used to populate a node.

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	<RootNodeDescription NamespaceGuid="778d1b97-e41f-4cc5-b6c0-41fc90013c4e" Id="SmsNamespace" DisplayName="SmsNamespace" Description="SMS Namespace" HelpTopic="86cfbf68-db41-44fa-9ae6-948cf4413a4e">
	<RootNodes>
		<NodeDescription>
		<ScopePaneItemDescriptions>
			<ScopePaneItemDescription NamespaceGuid="91a66c1c-0407-40e7-8696-fd382aca5ad2">
			<Queries>
				<QueryDescription NamespaceGuid="a0f56f00-0fce-4fff-a908-0a199f119265" Type="WQL" DisplayName="##SUB:__CLASS##" HelpTopic="86cfbf68-db41-44fa-9ae6-948cf4413a4e">
				<ViewAssemblyDescriptions>
					<ViewAssemblyDescription>
					<Assembly>AdminUI.SmsObjectView.dll</Assembly>
					<Type>Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.AdminConsole.SmsObjectView.SmsObjectViewDescription</Type>
					</ViewAssemblyDescription>
				</ViewAssemblyDescriptions>
				<Query>SELECT * FROM meta_class</Query>
				</QueryDescription>
			</Queries>
			</ScopePaneItemDescription>
		</ScopePaneItemDescriptions>
		<ResultPaneItemDescriptions>
			<ResultPaneItemDescription NamespaceGuid="324a6ff7-2266-4b0a-b0cd-7fc9721e553f" />
		</ResultPaneItemDescriptions>
		<NodeDescriptions />
		</NodeDescription>
	</RootNodes>
	<MatchPattern>1</MatchPattern>
	<MatchValueToTest>##SUB:NV:SMS:NamespaceView##</MatchValueToTest>
	</RootNodeDescription>

The important elements are:

Element Description

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.AdminConsole.Schema.RootNodeDescription

Describes the root node for the node.

Configuration Manager Console RootNodes Element

Root node for describing the node.

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.AdminConsole.Schema.NodeDescription

Parent for nodes describing the tree view and result pane.

ScopePanelItemDescription

Describes the tree view and custom views that are displayed in the result pane. For more information, see Configuration Manager Console RootNodes Element

ResultPanelItemDescription

Describes a query used to populate the result pane with Configuration Manager objects. For more information, see Configuration Manager Console RootNodes Element

resourceAssembly

The assembly from which to load resources for this node instance.

imageDescription

The assembly containing the icon and other image resources used by the node.

For more information, see Configuration Manager Console Icons.

In the preceding example code, a custom view is displayed, so the ResultPanelItemDescription is not populated with a query.

Optional Node Display

By using the MatchPattern and MatchValueToTest elements, you can optionally display the node by using a regular expression. In the preceding example, the MatchValueToTest element substitutes from the SMS:NamespaceView entry in the NamedValue dictionary. If its value matches MatchValue, the node is displayed. This corresponds to a Configuration Manager console /SMS:NamespaceView=1 command-line option.

Note
Every command-line option is added to the NamedValue dictionary and can be used in expressions to control such items as actions and nodes.

Node Hierarchy

You define cascading nodes by using NodeDescription as shown in this following XML:

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<NodeDescription>
	 <ScopePanelItemDescription>
	 <ResultPanelItemDescription>
	 <NodeDescriptions>
			<ScopePanelItemDescription>
			<ResultPanelItemDescription>
			<NodeDescriptions>
		</NodeDescriptions>
</NodeDescription>

See Also

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