[apacheds] Moving to OSGi

[Trustin Lee <tr...@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I'd like to know if we can embed OSGi kernel into OSGi kernel.  I heard
someone say that it is possible.  If it is true, I think we can consider
building ApacheDS on top of OSGi platform.  I think it will save a lot of
time for us (e.g. dynamic reconfiguration).  But I'm almost a layman in OSGi
field for now, so I'm not sure this kind of thought is right thing yet.  It
would be great if we have some discussion here.

We have a lot of features to implement and every feature we implement will
require a good extension point IMHO.  If we standardize the extension,
configuration, and discovery mechanism using OSGi, I think we'll be happier
than ever.

Trustin
--
what we call human nature is actually human habit
--
http://gleamynode.net/

Re: [apacheds] Moving to OSGi

[Enrique Rodriguez <en...@gmail.com>]

Enrique Rodriguez wrote:
> Trustin Lee wrote:
> 
>> ... But I'm 
>> almost a layman in OSGi field for now, so I'm not sure this kind of 
>> thought is right thing yet.  It would be great if we have some 
>> discussion here.

I'd like to add that, of course, you'll tap a much larger community of 
OSGi users if you post your "layman" OSGi questions to the Apache Felix 
list.  The OSGi Alliance and Eclipse architects are on that list and 
there are developers and users going back several years.

Enrique

Re: [apacheds] Moving to OSGi

[Trustin Lee <tr...@gmail.com>]

Hi Enrique,

2005/12/21, Enrique Rodriguez <en...@gmail.com>:
>
> Trustin Lee wrote:
> > I'd like to know if we can embed OSGi kernel into OSGi kernel.  I heard
> > someone say that it is possible.  If it is true, I think we can consider
> > building ApacheDS on top of OSGi platform.  I think it will save a lot
> > of time for us ( e.g. dynamic reconfiguration).  But I'm almost a layman
> > in OSGi field for now, so I'm not sure this kind of thought is right
> > thing yet.  It would be great if we have some discussion here.
>
> It's possible, but I have no idea why you would want to do so.  Perhaps
> you are thinking of other IoC containers which nest components?  In OSGi
> you have a single "backplane" that services register with, the Service
> Registry.  Wiring is scoped by LDAP filters and Java interfaces and can
> be secured by both framework means and Java security.


It is because we need to simplify the way ApacheDS is embedded.  For now, we
can use JNDI InitialContext simply.  We can create our own OSGi container in
it and hide internal implementation detail.  Of course, the users who know
the internal of ApacheDS could specify the reference to OSGi container so we
can reuse it.

> We have a lot of features to implement and every feature we implement
> > will require a good extension point IMHO.  If we standardize the
> > extension, configuration, and discovery mechanism using OSGi, I think
> > we'll be happier than ever.
>
> I, of course, am fully in support of a dedicated focus by Apache
> Directory on OSGi and for the same reasons you state.


Perhaps we'll make this happen after we release 1.0.  For now, we don't have
much time for migration unfortunately.

Trustin
--
what we call human nature is actually human habit
--
http://gleamynode.net/
PGP Key ID: 0x854B996C

Re: [apacheds] Moving to OSGi

[Enrique Rodriguez <en...@gmail.com>]

Trustin Lee wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'd like to know if we can embed OSGi kernel into OSGi kernel.  I heard 
> someone say that it is possible.  If it is true, I think we can consider 
> building ApacheDS on top of OSGi platform.  I think it will save a lot 
> of time for us ( e.g. dynamic reconfiguration).  But I'm almost a layman 
> in OSGi field for now, so I'm not sure this kind of thought is right 
> thing yet.  It would be great if we have some discussion here.

It's possible, but I have no idea why you would want to do so.  Perhaps 
you are thinking of other IoC containers which nest components?  In OSGi 
you have a single "backplane" that services register with, the Service 
Registry.  Wiring is scoped by LDAP filters and Java interfaces and can 
be secured by both framework means and Java security.

For more targeted wiring, and perhaps the nested components you are 
picturing, one option is the Extension Registry developed and used in 
Eclipse, which is an OSGi bundle separable from Eclipse, so available 
for use in non-RCP applications.

I have ApacheDS working fine as a suite of bundles in the Felix 
implementation, so "ApacheDS on top of OSGi platform" is more than 
possible.  However, I am working with large-grained OSGi bundles, so 
have done none of the work or experimentation to use OSGi for desirable 
extension points such as MINA filters or SAM subsystems (in the Kerberos 
protocol).  I really look forward to you and other ApacheDS developers 
working more here.

> We have a lot of features to implement and every feature we implement 
> will require a good extension point IMHO.  If we standardize the 
> extension, configuration, and discovery mechanism using OSGi, I think 
> we'll be happier than ever.

I, of course, am fully in support of a dedicated focus by Apache 
Directory on OSGi and for the same reasons you state.

Enrique