Menu
All MOTECH modules run in a Felix OSGi framework instance embedded within the platform war. Because of this all libraries you make use of in your module should be packaged as actual OSGi bundles.
The OSGi spec describes the bundle as a "unit of modularization" that "is comprised of Java classes and other resources which together can provide functions to end users.".
Simply said, OSGi is a dynamic module system for Java. It defines means to install, uninstall, update, start and stop modules. Those modules are called bundles, but are, in their simplest form, actually Java jar files with a special Manifest.
We've embedded an OSGi runtime (Equinox) into out custom client-server application to facilitate plugin development and so far things are going great. We've been using Eclipse to build plugins due to the built-in manifest editor, dependency management, and export wizard. Using Eclipse to manager builds isn't very conducive to continuous integration via Hudson.
We have OSGi bundles which depend on other OSGi bundles. I'd really hate to hardcode build order in a custom ANT build. We've done this is the past and it's pretty horrible. Is there any build tool that can EASILY manage OSGi dependencies, if not automatically resolve them? Are there any DECENT examples of how to this?
CLARIFICATION:
The generated build scripts are only usable via Eclipse. They require manually running pieces of Eclipse. We've also got some standard targets which the Eclipse build won't have, and I don't want to modify the generated file since I may regenerate (I know I can do includes, but I want to avoid the Eclipse gen file all together)
Here is my project layout:
/
-PluginA
-PluginB
-PluginC
.
.
.
In using the Eclipse PDE, each plugin has a Manifest, but no build.xml as the PDE does that for me. Hard to automate a gui driven process w/ Hudson. I'd like to setup my own build.xml to build each, BUT there are dependencies and build order issues. These issues are driven by the Manifest files (which describe OSGi imports). For example, PluginC depends on PluginB which depends on PluginA. They must be built in the correct order. I realize that I can manually control the build order, I'm looking for a tool to help automate the build order dependency management.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With