I have a 3rd party jar, no source, that is used to connect to a proprietary database system. I believe the jar is actually an Eclipse plugin; it was taken from one of the lib folders of the Eclipse-based editor for that system.
Anyway, I'm trying to develop a bundle that exposes the functionality of this jar, using Netbeans 7.4 and Karaf 3.0.1. Just trying to install the jar into Karaf isn't working - if I drop it into the deploy folder it doesn't even appear on the list, like it doesn't recognize it as an OSGI bundle. I created a new OSGI Maven bundle in Netbeans, added the jar as a dependency, and have tried all manner of shading, including in Bundle-ClassPath, Export-Package, with no luck. At one point I thought I had it working but Karaf was complaining about needing some Eclipse requirements.
I did more digging, unzipped the jar and the manifest for the 3rd party jar has this:
Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.core.runtime
So then I started down the rabbit hole of fulfilling those dependencies. Based on the maven pages I put together this features.xml file:
<features xmlns="http://karaf.apache.org/xmlns/features/v1.0.0">
<feature name='custom_deps' version='1.0'>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.equinox/log/1.0.100-v20070226</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse/osgi/3.5.0.v20090520</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.core/contenttype/3.2.100-v20070319</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.core/jobs/3.3.0-v20070423</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.core.runtime.compatibility/auth/3.2.100-v20070502</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.equinox/app/1.3.100-v20130327-1442</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.equinox/common/3.6.200-v20130402-1505</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.equinox/preferences/3.5.100-v20130422-1538</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.equinox/registry/3.5.301-v20130717-1549</bundle>
<bundle>mvn:org.eclipse.core/runtime/3.3.100-v20070530</bundle>
</feature>
</features>
Now when I try to install that I get:
karaf@root()> feature:install custom_deps
Error executing command: Could not start bundle mvn:org.eclipse/osgi/3.5.0.v2009
0520 in feature(s) custom_deps-1.0: Activator start error in bundle org.eclips
e.osgi [256].
which I think might have something to do with equinox vs felix? I'm just using the default Karaf setup and creating bundles using the built-in Netbeans Maven project and am still relatively new to the OSGI world. For the most part I can get bundles up and running and have put together a basic collection for an app, but this one bundle depends on being able to use this library and I'm struggling to find a way to get it working. I'm wondering if there's a way to either resolve all the linked dependencies of the jar, or somehow strip out whatever is depending on eclipse? I'm wondering if it's just plugin-related parts that aren't necessary for the connectivity I'm looking for.
Thanks for any ideas.
Edit: adding more info about the 3rd party jar
The jar is vendor-provided, but from a now defunct vendor. I'm not sure whether I can give vendor details or not so I'll mask the specific company info here. So the jar is named "com.bigcompany.product.productbeans_4.3.1.jar". The full manifest of the jar looks like this:
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
Bundle-Name: Productbeans Plug-in
Bundle-SymbolicName: com.bigcompany.product.productbeans
Bundle-Version: 4.3.1
Bundle-Activator: com.bigcompany.product.productbeans.ProductbeansPlugin
Bundle-Vendor: BIGCOMPANY
Bundle-Localization: plugin
Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.core.runtime
Eclipse-AutoStart: true
Export-Package: com.bigcompany.product.productbeans
The switch to Equinox in Karaf was relatively painless, but dropping the jar into Karaf still it still didn't appear in the list. I tried unzipping the jar, modifying the manifest to remove the Require-Bundle and Eclipse-Autostart lines, repacked it up and tried installing that - at that point it showed up but my bundles that want this library still complain about missing requirements 'com.bigcompany.product.productbeans'.
From there I'm tried redeploying my bundle that tries to import the 3rd party package, and when I try installing my features file above that complains about missing constraints - is there a required order of the bundles in the features file?
I think ultimately what I'm hoping is is there an authoritative way to just embed or include a jar (or it's contained .class files?) into a bundle that requires them, and to have it just work? I've tried Embed-Dependency, Bundle-Classpath (although I'm not sure if I have the syntax or locations correct?), using the maven shade plugin, and either I get to where my bundle says it's missing the 3rd party package, or if it doesn't give that it says it can't find the eclipse dependencies. If I have a non-OSGI project, the maven dependencies don't list or include any sort of eclipse-related dependencies. I can include snippets of my POM or something else if needed.
Basically the Require-Bundle says that it needs the equinox bundle. Karaf by standard uses Apache felix as OSGi runtime. As equinox is also a runtime you can not simply install it inside felix.
Instead you simply switch your karaf to use equinox instead of felix.
Edit etc/config.properties and set karaf.framework=equinox
Then try to deploy your bundle again (without additional dependencies first).