| The other side of the server-side coin [message #63611] | 
Thu, 16 March 2006 17:25   | 
 
Eclipse User  | 
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Originally posted by: bhunt.online.mac.com 
 
I've just started reading about the new OSGi server-side work, and it  
looks interesting.  It appears that you are looking at embedding OSGi  
inside a container - do I understand this correctly?  Has anyone  
considered the other side of the coin - creating a container as a  
plugin?  it seems that there could be a framework of server-side  
services that would operate at a higher level outisde a web container  
or an EJB container. 
 
For example, I could imagine a generic RSP (Rich Server Platform) with  
tooling in the Eclipse IDE that could connect to the RSP and deploy  
plugins.  I might create a plugin with a task extension point.  The  
plugin would execute the task extensions at user specified times (think  
cron).  Other developers could crete plugins that extended that task  
extension point and simply deploy their plugins for execution. 
 
Just my $0.02 
 
Bryan
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| Re: The other side of the server-side coin [message #63634 is a reply to message #63611] | 
Thu, 16 March 2006 18:03    | 
 
Eclipse User  | 
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Bryan Hunt wrote: 
> I've just started reading about the new OSGi server-side work, and it 
> looks interesting.  It appears that you are looking at embedding OSGi 
> inside a container - do I understand this correctly?  Has anyone 
> considered the other side of the coin - creating a container as a 
> plugin?  it seems that there could be a framework of server-side 
> services that would operate at a higher level outisde a web container or 
> an EJB container. 
 
There is the OSGi HttpService that implements something like a servlet 
container. Several implementations are available, one is based on Jetty, 
so you might say this has been considered. 
 
I believe the whole point of the embedding efforts to be that you no 
longer have to care where your bundle will be deployed -- you can deploy 
it as part of some web application, in a rich client or in some embedded 
server application, the bundle won't have to know. 
 
> For example, I could imagine a generic RSP (Rich Server Platform) with 
> tooling in the Eclipse IDE that could connect to the RSP and deploy 
> plugins.  I might create a plugin with a task extension point.  The 
> plugin would execute the task extensions at user specified times (think 
> cron).  Other developers could crete plugins that extended that task 
> extension point and simply deploy their plugins for execution. 
 
I am not sure, but someone may already be working on IDE support for 
provisioning. Manageability is one of the goals of the OSGi platform. 
 
And for your 'cron' service, an implementation based on (declarative) 
services might be nicer, as it would allow you to add tasks dynamically 
without installing any bundles (I believe extension points are only 
parsed on framework startup / bundle installation, please correct me if 
I am wrong). 
 
In the discussions about the OSGi server-side stuff, several people 
mentioned that a higher-level application model like the RCP model would 
be needed, so I think your ideas on this subject will be very welcome. 
 
Harald
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| Re: The other side of the server-side coin [message #63679 is a reply to message #63611] | 
Thu, 16 March 2006 20:43    | 
 
Eclipse User  | 
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Bryan Hunt wrote: 
> I've just started reading about the new OSGi server-side work, and it  
> looks interesting.  It appears that you are looking at embedding OSGi  
> inside a container - do I understand this correctly?  Has anyone  
> considered the other side of the coin - creating a container as a  
> plugin?  it seems that there could be a framework of server-side  
> services that would operate at a higher level outisde a web container or  
> an EJB container. 
 
Running a container as a bundle is a nice development time story, as you  
can then do a launch via an equinox launch, instead of having to deploy  
your plugins inside a container's web app and deal with that.  I've got  
a not-completely-kosher-servlet-wise Jetty launch for some servlet work  
I do now, that's good enough for me, and the launch time is a couple of  
seconds.  Very nice compared to having to having to deal with a real  
container, external to the IDE (even nicer that WTP, for me anyway). 
 
Ideally, such a story could dovetail with the servlet bridge, so you  
could do your final deployment that way, but all your development work  
with the 'container in a bundle' story. 
 
I suppose the best answer would be to see if the HttpService in OSGi  
would serve this purpose.  It might.  Kill two birds with one stone: get  
the HttpService implemented in equinox OSGi, and create a usable  
development environment for folks planning on deploying under the  
servlet bridge. 
 
Note that I'm assuming equinox doesn't already implement the  
HttpService; otherwise you could already do this, or something close. 
 
--  
Patrick Mueller - pmuellr@yahoo.com 
 
Oblique Strategies: Accretion
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| Re: The other side of the server-side coin [message #63724 is a reply to message #63657] | 
Fri, 17 March 2006 20:53    | 
 
Eclipse User  | 
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Erkki Lindpere wrote: 
> This whole OSGi in the container thing seems very interesting to me, and 
> it would be great to deploy for example BIRT in a web app as it is, 
> without requiring it's own "platform" or plugin loading mechanism, but 
> just standard OSGi. 
>  
> But there's one thing that concerns me: how (if at all) is scalability 
> addressed? I have only read parts of the OSGi spec, and haven't really 
> taken a look at all this that has been discussed in this newsgroup 
> lately, but based on what I know, OSGi doesn't seem to handle 
> scalability very well? 
 
You are right: OSGi isn't about scalability, or replication services. 
But it doesn't keep you from replicating things, I find it supports it 
rather nicely. We have built an application on top of an embedded OSGi 
framework that runs distributed across several machines. 
 
OSGi actually helped doing it, because by reducing the coupling between 
service use and implementations it made the services easier to distribute. 
 
Harald
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| Re: The other side of the server-side coin [message #63747 is a reply to message #63679] | 
Sat, 18 March 2006 02:35   | 
 
Eclipse User  | 
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Patrick Mueller wrote: 
> Ideally, such a story could dovetail with the servlet bridge, so you 
> could do your final deployment that way, but all your development work 
> with the 'container in a bundle' story. 
 
You might want to test your code in the container every now and then ... 
 
> I suppose the best answer would be to see if the HttpService in OSGi 
> would serve this purpose.  It might.  Kill two birds with one stone: get 
> the HttpService implemented in equinox OSGi, and create a usable 
> development environment for folks planning on deploying under the 
> servlet bridge. 
> 
> Note that I'm assuming equinox doesn't already implement the 
> HttpService; otherwise you could already do this, or something close. 
 
There already is an HttpService in Equinox, but it only supports the 
servlet API 2.1 and no JSPs or redirects between different HttpContext 
instances ... at least unless you use a patched version of the 
HttpService(*) and the JasperBundle(**). 
 
 
Harald 
 
*: see http://osxa.org/wiki/DemoDownload 
**: http://osxa.org/wiki/JasperBundle
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