OSGi Manager User's Guide

Introduction

OSGi Manager provides access to some of the most relevant working parameters of the OSGi Framework and lets the user watch and edit them, thus affecting the framework’s behaviour and operating status.

OSGi Manager is a web application, and as such is presented in an web browser. Depending on the browser, some presentation features might vary slightly, yet the general appearance and functionality remain as depicted in this guide across different platforms.

The application has been tested in two browsers: Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Finally, it is recommended to read the OSGi Release 3 specification in order to completely understand what can be do with this tool.

General Structure

The general structure of the application is composed of a title bar on top of the screen, a navigation menu, or main menu, to the left of the screen, and the main area, where information about each item is displayed.

This is the login screen, which can be found when accessing the application:

In the above image the general structure is shown, common to all the pages in the web site. In addition, the login dialog is presented in the main section of the page. This login is requested to keep track of each user’s preferences and established connections.

While the title bar is identical for all the pages in the web site, the main area is different for each page, and the main menu varies slightly depending of the situation as well. These variations take place when a login is performed, and when a connection is established. Both these events trigger the appearance of an additional information field in the main menu, as shown in the figure.

Functionalilty

The manager’s functionality can be split up in different blocks, roughly corresponding to the different entries in the main navigation menu, located on the left end of the screen.

First, the application counts on some facilities that have to do with the connection between the framework and the application. These can be found under Connections in the main menu. What it's seen under the other sections depends on the state of the existing connections.

The OSGi Manager shows general information about the framework and is also capable of listing all the bundles and services registered in the framework, as well as performing different operations with them. These features are listed as Framework, Bundles and Services in the main menu.

Finally, some of the services of the OSGi specification that are more relevant to adjust the operating conditions of the framework are mapped and given a management interface in the OSGi Manager. These services are the Package Admin, Start Level, Permission Admin, Log, and Configuration Admin services, and their interfaces can be found on the main menu under the items with the same name.

Next follows a more detailed explanation of each one of the application’s features.

Connections

The connections dialog is accessible via the left menu item with the same name. When clicked, this menu shows a first screen with a list of the connections the user has already created in present or previous sessions. This list presents a link to another view showing extended information on the connection, and some short information about its status – whether it is connected or not, and if it is the active.

It is possible to have multiple connections created at any time, and it is possible to connect using several connections simultaneously, but only one of them can be active at a time. Any operations performed with the application will have effect on the framework pointed by the active connection exclusively (and if any connection is active, a error message will be shown that invite you to activate one).

The next image shows the new connection formulary for tid-jma4o connections. The properties will be different for each type of connection:

And finally the view of a connection already created:

Framework

Information about the framework and the working environment can be found in the framework entry on the main menu, which shows the next view:

Bundles

Using the bundles facility, it is possible to start, stop, update and uninstall any bundle exported in the framework, or install new ones, among other possibilities:

Each row of the table above displays diverse information about each bundle installed in the framework, and contains links to de detailed bundle information view and its manifest, as well as a button to perform a refresh operation to all of the bundle’s packages, redirecting the user to the packages view. This is the bundle details screen:

In addition to the information displayed, this view contains 4 butttons, placed under the location field, that can be clicked by the user to update, start, stop and uninstall the bundle, from left to right. The update button presents a new input dialog to let the user specify a location from which to update. It defaults to the bundle’s installation location.

Services

The service view allows the listing of the services registered by the bundles installed in the framework:

Each row contains the service identifier, a link to the registering bundle’s detail screen, and a link to the service’s detailed information view:

Package Admin

The package admin presents information about the packages exported by the bundles installed on the framework:

Each row of the table above corresponds to a package. The rightmost link presents the bundle detail screen for the bundle exporting the package which name is presented at the leftmost part of the table. Clicking on these names, the user will access the package detail view:

In this view extended information about the package is displayed, including links to the bundle detail screen of all bundles installed in the system that import the actual package, as well as of the exporting bundle.

Start Level

The start level and initial start level of the framework, as well as each bundle’s start level can be specified through this view:

Permission Admin

The functionality of OSGi’s permission admin service is mapped to the view accessed by the menu item with the same name:

The first table displays information about locations with currently assigned permissions, as well as the default permission, while the second lets the user introduce permissions for a new location. The details view of each location is shown clicking of the appropriate row’s button, and allows the removal of existing permissions and the creation of new ones for the current location:

Log

The OSGi framework releases logs, all of which are captured by the OSGi manager and displayed in this view:

Configuration Admin

The Configuration Admin menu item provides access to the following view:

Single configurations

The first table controls the single configurations, while the second refers to the configuration factories. In the configurations table, it is possible to remove an existing configuration, duplicate an existing one, create a new one or access a configuration’s fields. When creating a new configuration, as well as when duplicating an existing one, a new PID needs to be introduced. The only difference is that when duplicating, all the configuration’s properties are filled with the original’s values, while in the case of the creation of a new one these properties are left empty. To watch and modify those the user can click on the field of the table with the configuration’s PID, a link to the details view:

Here new properties can be specified for every configuration. Each property is made up of a key and a value. This value can be of the following types, according to the OSGi specification:

Simple serializable type: String, Integer, Long, Float, Double, Byte, Short, Character or Boolean.
An array of any simple serializable type: String[], Integer[]…
An array of any primitive type: int[], char[], long[], short[], byte[], boolean[], double[] or float[].
A vector of any simple serializable type. Note that while all of an array’s members are of the same type, a vector is a collection of elements that don’t have to be necessary of the same type.

Depending of the property value’s type, a different view is shown when the Change button is clicked. In the case of a simple type, no view is displayed, and the value is set to that specified in the input box to the left of the button. When the value of the property is of the type array of whatever other simple type (serializable or primitives), the view on the right is shown:

Here, the Change button sets the value of the array element to that specified in the corresponding input box, and when a new element is created it take the value specified in the blank text field at the bottom of the table, of the same type as the rest of the array.

When the value of the property is java.util.Vector, the next view is displayed:

In this case, the new elements created with the new button can be of any simple serializable type (neither primitives nor complex types), which has to be specified at the sliding list to the left of the value input box.

Configuration factories

In the configurations factory table, located under the single configurations table in the main configuration admin screen, it is possible to remove, and modify existing configuration factories, and create new one. Removing a configuration factory implies removing all of its simple configurations. When creating a new configuration factory a new factoryPID needs to be specified. The new factory is created with a new single configuration named after the factory configuration, with a numeric suffix referring its birth order. For instance, if a factory called “newFactory” is created, it will contain a configuration named newFactory.0.

When more configurations are added to the current factory configuration, they will follow the same naming pattern, so the next time the new button is pressed, a new configuration will be created with the name “newFactory.1”, and so on. Configurations belonging to a configuration factory can also be duplicated. In this case, however, it will not be necessary to specify a PID for the new configuration, the new duplicated configuration will take the name that a new configuration created in the same moment would have. The configuration PID displayed in the table above is also a link to a configuration details screen identical to that of a single configuration.