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What's the best way to get started with OSGI?

Asked 2008-08-19T13:20:49.010
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What makes a module/service/bit of application functionality a particularly good candidate for an OSGi module?

I'm interested in using OSGi in my applications. We're a Java shop and we use Spring pretty extensively, so I'm leaning toward using Spring Dynamic Modules for OSGi(tm) Service Platforms. I'm looking for a good way to incorporate a little bit of OSGi into an application as a trial. Has anyone here used this or a similar OSGi technology? Are there any pitfalls?

@Nicolas - Thanks, I've seen that one. It's a good tutorial, but I'm looking more for ideas on how to do my first "real" OSGi bundle, as opposed to a Hello World example.

@david - Thanks for the link! Ideally, with a greenfield app, I'd design the whole thing to be dynamic. What I'm looking for right now, though, is to introduce it in a small piece of an existing application. Assuming I can pick any piece of the app, what are some factors to consider that would make that piece better or worse as an OSGi guinea pig?

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Try http://neilbartlett.name/blog/osgibook/. The book has hands on examples with OSGi best practices.

answered 2008-09-27T19:24:17.863
1

I really like the Apache Felix tutorials. However, I think in general leveraging OSGi in your application isn't one of those "let's use this framework, because it's hype" decision. It's more of a design question, but then everything that OSGi gives you in terms of design, you can have with vanilla Java as well.

As for the runtime, you cannot just add an existing application and make it OSGi enabled. It needs to be design to be dynamic. Spring DM makes it easy to hide that from you, but it's still there and you need to be aware of it.

answered 2008-08-19T15:32:05.017

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