What is the difference in Extension & Add Ons in Hybris
I suppose Default Extension can Encapsulate Business Logic, Type Definitions, Configurations & Add Ons.
I Know that Add On is Also a Type Of Extensions that Extend Normal Extensions.
I further know that Add Ons Extend Functionality without Touching CODE Base.
Any Inputs from Hybris Experts Highly Appreciated.
Answer
An extension is an encapsulated piece of the Hybris Commerce Suite that can contain business logic, type definitions, a web application, or Hybris Management Console(hMC) configuration.
Hybris shipped with number of extension templates eg yempty, yaddon, ycockpit, ybackoffice and ycommercewebservices.
Addon is also a kind of extension which is generally used to extend Accelerator StoreFront functionality. For example, suppose you want to create a new CMS component and want to use it in your storefront but you don't want to touch the code base then the best way is to create an addon.
A normal extension doesn't need to install but addon needs to. It means if you are creating an addon, you need to install it in your existing storefront template.
ant addoninstall -Daddonnames="customaddon" -DaddonStorefront.yacceleratorstorefront="customstorefront"
This will insert the dependency between customstorefront and customaddon in the storefront extensioninfo.xml file as well as provide the additional web-spring.xml configs defined in the customaddon's project.properties. A build callback will now copy the web application content to the storefront.
After ant all, you should find the view JSP duplicated to customstorefront /web/webroot/WEB-INF/views/addons/customaddon/desktop/cms.
This way you can customize accelerator storefront without touching the actual one.