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- What is a bundle? Give an example.
- What is OSGi and how does it work?
- Explain what an Activator is.
- Provide references to tutorials developers new to the concept of bundles can read to get familiar with the topic.
- Explain the concept of extension point.
- Explain the advantages of bundles, plug-ins. (Ann can write this part after talking more with Michael and Lance.)
Developing IGB bundles
IGB bundles are OSGi compatible, so they must have an Activator, a class that extends org.osgi.framework.BundleActivator, and they must have a manifest.mf file that is found in the META-INF directory. These are compiled and jarred with all required classes, jars, and resources. The resulting jar is the bundle. This can then be uploaded to the bundle repository. At that point, any one can use the bundle with IGB. IGB uses the Apache Felix OSGi implementation, but this could change, so no Felix specific code should be used. In the Activator class, there is a start() and stop() method that are called when the bundle is activated / deactivated (not installed / uninstalled). This is where you want to put all the code to start and stop the bundle.
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Ann's note: Please add a tutorial explaining how to develop a simple plug-in. Your graph plug-in is probably a good place to start. We need a very simple but cool example that relies on a stable part of the API so that the tutorial doesn't get out of date.)
To create plug-ins using NetBeans - a Quick-Start Guide
Is this possible? Easy?