Re: [ecf-dev] refactoring remote service features

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/6/2014 11:25 AM, Pablo García Sánchez wrote:
> Yes, I know that using only a bundle is against OSGi philosophy :)

I don't think that's what I said :)...as I'm not inclined toward 
philosophy...very often anyway ;-).

> I asked because the other day I just tested CXF by downloading their 
> one-bundle distribution, started their bundle, and exposed my services 
> with SOAP just only adding a line in my component definition. Maybe 
> this way is easier for beginners, instead activating or deactivating 
> the ECF bundles they require for each provider.

Perhaps it is easier for some beginners.   We would like to make it as 
easy as possible for as many beginners (and non-beginners) as we can.   
That's why I would ask that you express this need as a comment on either 
409787...or open a new bug/enhancement specifically for creating a 
single-bundle distribution (of remote services, presumably).

> Well, I guess it only saves time because it does not need a .product 
> to launch the examples (therefore you are not tied to Eclipse, but 
> well, this is a Eclipse project :P ).

It's true this is an Eclipse project...but that doesn't mean that we are 
tied to Eclipse.

ECF has a number of significant 'parts/APIs'...some that are meant as 
Eclipse add ons (e.g. cola/docshare), and others that are completely 
independent of Eclipse (e.g. OSGi remote services). Remote services, for 
example, is not tied to Equinox either (EF's OSGI framework 
implementation project).  This means that ECF's remote services can/does 
run on Felix and other OSGi frameworks. That's the way it is currently, 
and that's the way it will remain...primarily because we are (closely) 
following the standardization of remote services/RSA with our 
implementation (our impl is completely compliant with the spec...and 
passes the R5 compatibility test suite).

The main purpose behind bug 409787 and (e.g.) [1] is to make it easier 
to install, run, test, learn, build own remote services, integrate, 
deploy on both non-Eclipse and non-Equinox environments.   IMHO, 
OSGI-based frameworks (like ECF, CXF, DS impls, others, etc) currently 
all suffer from the current state of OSGI wrt provisioning and tooling.  
Unfortunately, I don't feel that ECF can address all those problems alone.

Rather, we are trying to meet the needs of the community as much as 
possible...by providing multiple types of distribution formats, 
reorganizing features so consumption is easier, creating 
examples/tutorials, etc.   The challenge...IMHO...is meeting as many 
needs as possible...when there is little or no 
consistency/agreement...even at the level of 'philosophy'...as you 
say...for things like OSGi provisioning (there, I said it :).

So...I urge you...if you want a single bundle distribution of parts of 
ECF then please open an enhancement, describe your use case, present 
details (as you know them) and consider contributing to making it 
happen.   It will not be ignored...even if ECF is an EF project.

Thanks,

Scott