Plugin multi-manifest not working with vsphere.client and vcenter.server requirements

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

While deploying a multi-manifest plug-in, the following error is seen in the Client Plugins View:
"The plug-in is incompatible with the current vSphere Client version."

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.1
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.3
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.2

Cause

The multi-manifest functionality proceeds by attempting to parse the given ordered list of plugin manifests.
The first manifest which succeeds to parse is then deployed. If the deployment fails, the next in the list manifest is not attempted. The test for the vsphere.client and vcenter.server requirements is done during the deployment phase. If plug-in partner depends on these requirements while using the multi-manifest functionality they might end up in a situation where the plug-in fails to deploy, even though the next manifest in the list might deploy successfully.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution to the issue. This will be fixed in a future release.

Workaround:

In order to specify different plugin manifest for 7.X and 8.X versions with the multi-manifest functionality, partners need to specify a requirement which is not present in the 7.X releases. One such requirement is the open.modal.api requirement which is added in 8.0 GA. In the 8.0 version of the plugin manifest, the following snippet can be added to the plugin manifest requirements to fix the issue:

"open.modal.api": "1.1.0"