The Felix Web Console is a single OSGi bundle that runs in any OSGi container, provided that you have an OSGi HttpService installed. It allows you to see the installed bundles, start/stop them, install and uninstall bundles and much more. Furthermore, its extensible architecture allows developers to add new pages and functionalities.

Let’s see how we can quickly install and try it using Pax Runner.

Let’s start with Apache Felix. The first step is to start the OSGi container using the pax web profile (have a look at this post for more informations on Pax Runner):

pax-run.sh --profiles=web
    ______  ________  __  __
   / __  / /  __   / / / / /
  /  ___/ /  __   / _\ \ _/
 /  /    /  / /  / / _\ \
/__/    /__/ /__/ /_/ /_/

Pax Runner (1.1.1) from OPS4J - http://www.ops4j.org
----------------------------------------------------

 -> Using config [classpath:META-INF/runner.properties]
 -> Using only arguments from command line
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-composite:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.runner.profiles/web//composite]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-composite:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.runner.profiles/log//composite]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-bundle:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-bundle:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-bundle:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.web/pax-web-service/0.6.0]
 -> Provision bundle [mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0, at default start level,
       bundle will be started, bundle will be loaded from the cache]
 -> Provision bundle [mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0, at default start
       level, bundle will be started, bundle will be loaded from the cache]
 -> Provision bundle [mvn:org.ops4j.pax.web/pax-web-service/0.6.0, at default start level,
       bundle will be started, bundle will be loaded from the cache]
 -> Preparing framework [Felix 1.8.1]
 -> Downloading bundles...
 -> Felix 1.8.1 : 368237 bytes @ [ 140kBps ]
 -> org.osgi.compendium (4.1.0) : 514214 bytes @ [ 264kBps ]
 -> org.apache.felix.shell (1.2.0) : 59114 bytes @ [ 5374kBps ]
 -> org.apache.felix.shell.tui.plugin (1.2.0) : 12455 bytes @ [ 296kBps ]
 -> mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0 : 86184 bytes @ [ 310kBps ]
 -> mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0 : 426219 bytes @ [ 303kBps ]
 -> mvn:org.ops4j.pax.web/pax-web-service/0.6.0 : 968964 bytes @ [ 23633kBps ]
 -> Using execution environment [J2SE-1.6]
 -> Runner has successfully finished his job!

Welcome to Felix.
=================
.. [a lot of logs here]
-> ps
START LEVEL 6
   ID   State         Level  Name
[   0] [Active     ] [    0] System Bundle (1.8.1)
[   1] [Active     ] [    5] OPS4J Pax Logging - API (1.3.0)
[   2] [Active     ] [    5] OPS4J Pax Logging - Service (1.3.0)
[   3] [Active     ] [    5] OPS4J Pax Web - Service (0.6.0)
[   4] [Active     ] [    1] osgi.compendium (4.1.0.build-200702212030)
[   5] [Active     ] [    1] Apache Felix Shell Service (1.2.0)
[   6] [Active     ] [    1] Apache Felix Shell TUI (1.2.0)
->
...

Felix has started, and as you can see typing the ps command, several bundles are preinstalled; among them you can see the Pax Web Service, that implements the OSGi Http Service.

Now let’s install the Web Console. Simply type

-> install http://www.internet.bs/apache.org/felix/org.apache.felix.webconsole-1.2.10.jar
Bundle ID: 7
-> start 7
...

Done! Now you can open your browser at http://localhost:8080/system/console, enter the admin/admin username and password, and enjoy your web console.

As you can see, there are several pages in the Web Console, but not all of them are working out of the box, as you have to install additional bundles. For instance, to be able to work with the Configuration page, you’ll need to install a Configuration Admin Service implementation, and so forth.

After you’ve played a bit with console, you may want to try it with your favorite OSGi framework (assuming it’s not Felix!). Equinox user? Simply type

pax-run.sh --profiles=web --platform=equinox
..

and then, when the console appears, type again

-> install http://www.internet.bs/apache.org/felix/org.apache.felix.webconsole-1.2.10.jar
Bundle ID: 6
-> start 6
...

and you are now ready to try the Web Console on Equinox!

Spring is not only a helpful framework for the server side, its “Spring Dynamic Modules for OSGi” can be beneficial for Eclipse RCP applications on the client side as well:

– Spring’s IoC container is the most well known implementation of dependency injection. As inversion of control and dependency injection are very general concepts for structuring software applications, you may want to use it to inject the dependencies of your UI and non-UI client-side components as well.

– Spring provides a bunch of general-purpose abstractions for other frameworks…

Read the complete tutorial here.

This post describes the Jonas Showcase. This showcase illustrates how the JOnAS application server support OSGi integration. thanks to JOnAS, OSGi and JEE can collaborate together in a very elegant way.

Check the complete post on the akquinet blog.

Pax Runner claims to be

a tool to provision OSGi bundles in all major open source OSGi framework implementations (Felix, Equinox, Knopflerfish, Concierge).

but is actually much more. With Pax Runner you can start any OSGi container, in different versions and configurations, and with different sets of preloaded bundles. It’s particularly useful to try your bundles with all the OSGi implementations.

Let’s see now how an absolute beginner can use Pax Runner to start playing with OSGi.

First of all, you need to download the latest version of Pax Runner from the download page; in our case, we will download Pax Runner 1.1.1 for java 1.5 and beyond (zip).

Unzip the downloaded file and add to your system PATH the “bin” folder (in our case, pax-runner-1.1.1/bin/)

Now type: pax-run.sh (on Unix, or the correspondent .bat file on Windows) and see Pax Runner in action:

$ pax-run.sh
    ______  ________  __  __
   / __  / /  __   / / / / /
  /  ___/ /  __   / _\ \ _/
 /  /    /  / /  / / _\ \
/__/    /__/ /__/ /_/ /_/

Pax Runner (1.1.1) from OPS4J - http://www.ops4j.org
----------------------------------------------------

 -> Using config [classpath:META-INF/runner.properties]
 -> Using only arguments from command line
 -> Preparing framework [Felix 1.8.1]
 -> Downloading bundles...
 -> Felix 1.8.1 : 368237 bytes @ [ 141kBps ]
 -> org.osgi.compendium (4.1.0) : 514214 bytes @ [ 172kBps ]
 -> org.apache.felix.shell (1.2.0) : 59114 bytes @ [ 1642kBps ]
 -> org.apache.felix.shell.tui.plugin (1.2.0) : 12455 bytes @ [ 30kBps ]
 -> Using execution environment [J2SE-1.6]
 -> Runner has successfully finished his job!

Welcome to Felix.
=================
->
.

As you can see, Pax Runner has downloaded Apache Felix and some basic bundles; what you see is the Apache Felix Console: just type help to start playing with it.

Do you want to see how Equinox looks like? Starting Equinox and playing with its console is as simple as typing pax-run.sh –platform=equinox

pax-run.sh --platform=equinox
    ______  ________  __  __
   / __  / /  __   / / / / /
  /  ___/ /  __   / _\ \ _/
 /  /    /  / /  / / _\ \
/__/    /__/ /__/ /_/ /_/

Pax Runner (1.1.1) from OPS4J - http://www.ops4j.org
----------------------------------------------------

 -> Using config [classpath:META-INF/runner.properties]
 -> Using only arguments from command line
 -> Preparing framework [Equinox 3.5.0]
 -> Downloading bundles...
 -> Equinox 3.5.0 : 1122602 bytes @ [ 215kBps ]
 -> Eclipse utilities : 22471 bytes @ [ 387kBps ]
 -> Eclipse compendium services : 66065 bytes @ [ 359kBps ]
 -> Using execution environment [J2SE-1.6]
 -> Runner has successfully finished his job!

osgi>
.

Finally, Pax Runner defines the concept of Profiles; a profile is a pre-defined set of bundles. Every user can define its own profiles, but the tool comes with a initial set of profiles.
Let’s say you can to start Knopflerfish with all the bundles implementing the OSGi Log Service; with Pax Runner you just need to type: pax-run.sh –platform=knopflerfish –profiles=log

pax-run.sh --platform=knopflerfish --profiles=log
    ______  ________  __  __
   / __  / /  __   / / / / /
  /  ___/ /  __   / _\ \ _/
 /  /    /  / /  / / _\ \
/__/    /__/ /__/ /_/ /_/

Pax Runner (1.1.1) from OPS4J - http://www.ops4j.org
----------------------------------------------------

 -> Using config [classpath:META-INF/runner.properties]
 -> Using only arguments from command line
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-composite:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.runner.profiles/log//composite]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-bundle:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0]
 -> Scan bundles from [scan-bundle:mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0]
 -> Provision bundle [mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0, at default start level,
   bundle will be started, bundle will be loaded from the cache]
 -> Provision bundle [mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0, at default
    start level, bundle will be started, bundle will be loaded from the cache]
 -> Preparing framework [Knopflerfish 2.3.1]
 -> Downloading bundles...
 -> Knopflerfish 2.3.1 : 366660 bytes @ [ 161kBps ]
 -> org.osgi.compendium : 689150 bytes @ [ 195kBps ]
 -> Knopflerfish Console : 36329 bytes @ [ 257kBps ]
 -> Knopflerfish Console TTY : 6153 bytes @ [ 256kBps ]
 -> Knopflerfish Framework Commands : 26090 bytes @ [ 208kBps ]
 -> mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-api/1.3.0 : 86184 bytes @ [ 225kBps ]
 -> mvn:org.ops4j.pax.logging/pax-logging-service/1.3.0 : 426219 bytes @ [ 183kBps ]
 -> Using execution environment [J2SE-1.6]
 -> Runner has successfully finished his job!

Knopflerfish OSGi framework, version 4.1.3
Copyright 2003-2009 Knopflerfish. All Rights Reserved.

See http://www.knopflerfish.org for more information.
Loading xargs url file:knopflerfish/config.ini
Installed and started: file:bundles/osgi.compendium_4.0.1.jar (id#1)
Installed and started: file:bundles/org.knopflerfish.bundle.console_2.0.1.jar (id#2)
Installed and started: file:bundles/org.knopflerfish.bundle.consoletty-IMPL_2.0.0.jar (id#3)
Installed and started: file:bundles/org.knopflerfish.bundle.frameworkcommands-IMPL_2.0.5.jar (id#4)
Installed and started: file:bundles/org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api_1.3.0.jar (id#5)
Installed and started: file:bundles/org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-service_1.3.0.jar (id#6)
> org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api[org.ops4j.pax.logging.internal.Activator] : Enabling
   SLF4J API support.
org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api[org.ops4j.pax.logging.internal.Activator] : Enabling Jakarta
   Commons Logging API support.
org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api[org.ops4j.pax.logging.internal.Activator] : Enabling Log4J
   API support.
org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api[org.ops4j.pax.logging.internal.Activator] : Enabling Avalon
   Logger API support.
org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-api[org.ops4j.pax.logging.internal.Activator] : Enabling JULI
   Logger API support.
[startlevel job thread] DEBUG org.ops4j.pax.logging.pax-logging-service - BundleEvent STARTED
[main] DEBUG system.bundle - FrameworkEvent STARTED
Framework launched

> ps
   id  level/state name
   --------------------
    0  0/active    System Bundle
    1  1/active    osgi.compendium
    2  1/active    Console
    3  1/active    TTY-Console-IMPL
    4  1/active    FW-Commands-IMPL
    5  5/active    OPS4J Pax Logging - API
    6  5/active    OPS4J Pax Logging - Service
.

As you can see, Knopflerfish is up and running, and the Pax Logging bundles are installed.

Pax Runner offers much more than these basic functionalities; check the documentation for more details.

• Building OSGi application with Maven
• Groovy Maven
• Scala and Maven

Read the book here. A pdf download is also available.

Modular Java: Creating Flexible Applications with OSGi and Spring, by Craig Walls
I totally missed this title last February, but it seems Craig and the Pragmatic Programmers have been very quick to develop and publish this book. They were kind enough to give me a copy, so expect a more detailed review in the next few weeks.
Table of contents (pdf)

OSGi in Practice, by Neil Bartlett
No big news on this side, the book is not complete yet, but it’s free, and it’s, in my opinion, the most well-written book on the topic.
Donwload it here

OSGi in Action, Manning, by Richard S. Hall, Karl Pauls, Stuart McCulloch and Davide Savage
Very promising title, but its development is particularly slow. They gained an additional author (David Savage of Paremus), and the new estimated release date is January 2010; at the moment only a few chapters are available.
I have subscribed the Manning MEAP (Early access program), so I’ll keep you updated on its development
Table of contents (HTML)

Die OSGi Service Platform, Dpunkt.Verlag, by Gerd Wütherich, Nils Hartmann, Bernd Kolb, Matthias Lübken
German only! I had a good look at it in a local bookstore, and it seems very complete but also very Equinox-centric; a good reference if you speak enough German.
Table of contents (pdf)

Equinox and OSGi: The Power Behind Eclipse, Addison Wesley, by Jeff McAffer, Paul VanderLei, Simon Archer
Initially announced for August 2009, the release date has moved to end of November. No preview is available, as far as I know. Preview available on Safari.

Pro Spring Dynamic Modules for OSGi™ Service Platform, Apress, by Daniel Rubio
Available; the table of contents looks interesting (quite original the Flex with OSGi chapter) , but I haven’t had any time to look at it.
Dowload the table of contents

OSGi Application Frameworks, Manning, by Alexandre de Castro Alves
New title from Manning, just entered in the MEAP program. Expected release, January 2010
Details here (HTML)

Spring Dynamic Modules in Action, Manning, by Arnaud Cogoluegnes, Thierry Templier, and Andy Piper
Again Manning, just two chapters available, release February 2010
Details here

In brief, the situation is evolving quite quickly, and hopefully by the beginning of 2010 we’ll be able to see many OSGi books in our bookstores. The Pragmatic Programmers have been quick to move into this (relatively) new topic, and Manning is following with an interesting number of new releases. Apart from Apress, other publishers are probably still waiting to see how this market evolves; particularly strange the lack of titles from O’Reilly.

Over the last month or so I have been working on adding OSGi Bundle Repository (OBR) support to Nexus Professional, and I am happy to announce this feature will be available in the 1.3.5 release. But what exactly is OBR and why should you care?

Read the complete post on the Sonatype blog.

This entry is my take on a trait of the current OSGi architecture unparalleled to my knowledge in any other modular environment. Before I delve in I must introduce in brief said architecture. Detailed descriptions can be found in the public OSGi specification.

Read the complete post in Todor’s blog.

ECF is[..] a framework for building applications that require communications. So, those applications can be applications that are for human to human communications, so things like instant messaging, chat, Voice over IP and real-time shared editing. We are doing APIs for all of those things. Also, ECF can be used to support machine to machine communications – so distributed services, SOA architectures, service oriented architectures and other kind of server to server or peer to peer communications are also supported by ECF

Unfortunately the audio of the interview is not perfect, but you can read the transcript on the Eclipse DZone website.