Revision as of 10:57, 6 May 2010

Approach 2: Embedding ADempiere in Equinox done by Joerg Viola.

ADempiere is getting pluggable like the Eclipse framework!

Status: Alpha Code - Review required

• Current release tag: 4.0.0pr01
• Swing client can be fired up inside equinox.
• very few tests applied
• Webstart has been fired up with equinox.
• zkwebui runs inside OSGi through equinox servlet bridge
• deployment now integrated in the standard adempiere setup!
  • currently only swing standalone and zkwebui accessible
  • webstart has to be packed in a war for deploying in any web container

Setup

• Code is in https://adempiere.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/adempiere/branches/osgi/approach2 - this is a "real" svn branch - check it out!
• Use multiple project setup
  • Simple trick on slow sf.net to get into multiple project setup: Do one checkout, rename top-level .project file to make it dissappear.
  • The import projects into workspace.

Eclipse setup

• As usual: File/Import.../Existing Projects into Workspace
• You find a new top-level project equinox-target. It serves the following purposes:
  • acting as an equinox-target, defining the eclipse dev environment
  • providing ant-based setup for development environment for standalone swing client, webstart and web ui.
  • Later: installing equinox runtime components in the ADempiere install process
• Open the file equinox-target/equinox.target and click "Set as target platform" in the upper right corner.
  • Now eclipse knows about the specific equinox bundle configuration we are going to use.

Development Environment

• Use the standard ADempiere deployment:
  • cd utils_dev

./RUN_build.sh

• This creates and adempiere/Adempiere installation with a new "osgi" folder. This is the OSGi container platform
• For updating a modified plug-in, use

./RUN_plugin.sh <name of plugin project>

Swing Standalone

• Use the standard ./RUN_ADempiere.sh in deploy directory

WebStart

• Currently not available
  • Feature is to be build and packed into war
• A new top-level project webstart has been created
• This is a feature (equinox language).
  • It wraps all plugins.
• If you do not have one, create a keystore
  • eg. using: keytool -genkey -alias adempiere -keystore equinox-target/dist/keystore
• open webstart/feature.xml (should open in the eclipse feature editor)
• Press the "export deployable feature" icon in the top-right corner
  • Choose equinox-target/dist/webstart as output directory
  • Under JAR signed, provide your keystore
  • Under Java Web Start, provide the location the JNLP will be downloaded from (eg. http://localhost:8080/webstart) and the JVM spec (1.5+)
  • Click Finish
• Run it using one of the following options:
  • on the console, cd to equinox-target/dist/webstart and execute javaws adempiere-equinox.jnlp
  • in a web-container, link a webapp to equinox-target/dist/webstart and download the app from webstart/adempiere-equinox.jnlp

ZK Web UI

• Currently unavailable
  • War has to be packed and deployed
• install a tomcat-5.5.28
• ln -s equinox-target/dist/web tomcat-5.5.28/webapps/adempiere
• Open zkwebui/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
  • "Export deployable plugins and fragments" (top-right corner icon)
  • Select all plugins
  • Choose equinox-target/dist/web/WEB-INF/eclipse as output directory
• rm -rf tomcat-5.5.28/work/* (ensure using current build)
• fire up tomcat: catalina.sh jpda run (jpda for remote debugging)
• http://localhost:8080/adempiere/index.zul
• Enjoy

Development cycle

Though initial setup seems to be quite expensive, the development turnaround cycle is not.

A fine tool is the OSGi console, a text console currently launched at standalone and web deployment. The terminal window after start simply accepts keyboard input, type "help" for available commands:

* help
* ss - short status of all bundles
* refresh <bundle id>

Now what to do if you want to change a plugin and test it?

• If you changed code in a plugin, open its MANIFEST.MF
• deploy it: utils_dev/RUN_plugin <project name>
• choose the standalone or the web OSGi container - wherever you want to test
• attach to the OSGi console running, refresh the bundle and test.

Webstart can only be tested by deploying all features which is quite time consuming. Do it after everything runs in the standalone container.

Running standalone within Eclipse

Alternatively, you can run/debug Adempiere standalone within Eclipse.

• Select Run -> Run configurations...
• create new OSGI Framework
• Under bundles Deselect All, and then select org.adempiere.client and any other plugins you want to use
• Click Add Required Bundles
• Run

Core Interfaces/Extension Points

Tutorials

• Write a plugin
• Extract core functionality into an extension point

Learning Points Encountered

• client code in base: this code has no access eg. on resources in client.
  • First core interface defined: IResourceFinder
  • Adempiere.class.getResource() converted to Adempiere.getResource() - which in turn uses IResourceHandler
• Postgres Driver in tools is java 1.6? - Have to use a 1.6 VM!
• ZK Servlets do not save ServletConfig - Workaround checked in
• Standard Equinox bridging webapp incompatible with up-to-date equinox - updated version provided.

See Also

• Equinox Integration
• ADempiere/OSGi Integration
• RoadmapToModularization
• SourceForge discussion
• PMC Architecture Meeting 20100324 that touched about OSGI development.

Further Reading

• http://www.osgi.org/About/WhyOSGi
• http://impalablog.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-developers-dont-just-jump-at-osgi.html
• http://blog.springsource.com/2008/05/15/why-should-i-care-about-osgi-anyway/
• Equinox webstart documentation: http://help.eclipse.org/help33/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/java_web_start.htm
• Why OSGi is cool, but not for most enterprise apps