Re: new whiteboard experiment, OSGi style

Brian M Dube wrote:
> David Crossley wrote:
> > Brian M Dube wrote:
> > > 
> > > Great, thanks. I'll gladly expand the documentation based on any
> > > questions.
> > 
> > Perhaps some very high-level scenarios.
> > 
> > Does this mean that components such as
> > Apache Cocoon blocks, e.g. Cocoon3 components
> > and Apache Sling, Apache Jackrabbit
> > can be readily utilised?
> 
> Good question.
> 
> The Apache Cocoon blocks, as currently shipped with Apache Forrest,
> are not ready to drop into an OSGi environment. It looks like this is
> also the case with Cocoon3, but that is only a guess based on the
> website content and not the code.

I recall there being lots of discussion about OSGi in the
height of the Cocoon-2 days.

Not saying that we should hold on to Cocoon,
rather that i presume OSGi enables us to utilise
components from various providers.

Also the prior Cocoon work would provide some good
background information.

A quick search to find some Cocoon starting points:

[osgi] Initial code
http://s.apache.org/t4

http://wiki.apache.org/cocoon/osgi

OSGi integration : make Cocoon (blocks) OSGi driven
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COCOON/component/12311920

I do not know how far those efforts progressed.

Then recently:
Cocoon 3: the three sisters as OSGi bundles?
http://s.apache.org/yI

-David

> It is possible to "wrap" a jar, which adds the manifest headers
> necessary for OSGi. One scenario is to wrap each block along with all
> its dependencies, possibly duplicating dependencies in each wrapped
> block. Another scenario is to wrap each block as is and supply the
> dependencies as individual bundles. But either way, the dependencies
> have to be provided somehow. It's not as easy as having them on the
> classpath in the non-OSGi sense.
> 
> For other OSGi-based projects, such as Apache Sling, absolutely. The
> details depend on how they've set up their bundles (services? custom
> manifest headers?), but in the end it's OSGi and there would be a way
> to use it.
> 
> I should state that I'm no authority on OSGi. I'm learning as I go
> here.
> 
> -Brian