OSGi at JSig

On February 15th 2007, Neil Bartlett and Alex Blewitt gave a demonstration to JSig on the benefits of the OSGi platform for dynamic Java applications. The presentation discussed:

• What is OSGi and what does it solve?
• What are OSGi bundles?
• How can you install, start, stop and reinstall a bundle?
• Using OSGi services for dynamic Swing applications
• Versioned bundles and side-by-side demonstration using FOP

All code was developed in NetBeans, and run in Knopflerfish. Of course, the OSGi bundles could run in any other compliant OSGi implementation (e.g. Felix or Equinox) and the code could just has easily been written in IntelliJ or Eclipse -- or even Vi for that matter.

The presentation is available as a PDF, and the demonstrations are QuickTime movies. If you have any comments on the presentation or the demonstrations, please feel free to discuss them in the appropriate EclipseZone forum.

If you want to, you can install these bundles directly into an OSGi engine using some variant of:

• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/HelloWorld.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/HelloAction.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/Explorer.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/PropertiesAction.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/ViewAction.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/org.apache.fop_0.20.5.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/org.apache.fop_0.93.0.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/Fop20RenderAction.jar
• install http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/bundles/Fop93RenderAction.jar

Presentation and demonstrations

• The presentation in PDF form (download PDF)
• Writing and installing a bundle (download QuickTime movie)
• Starting, stopping and updating bundles (download QuickTime movie)
• Installing services into a JFrame (download QuickTime movie)
• Installing side-by-side bundles (download QuickTime movie)
• You can also download the code for the demonstrations.