Wayne and Lynn talk about what's new and cool at the Foundation for October 2009. This month, they discuss Eclipse Summit Europe, DemoCamps, EclipseRT Days, project plans and the EGit project.

Total running time 09:17 minutes

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics currently discussed in the IT sector. Although there are many different definitions of the term 'Cloud', providing remote services is at the center of Cloud computing. This webinar will demonstrate how "goodies" from different Eclipse projects can be combined to build applications on Cloud infrastructures.

Together, Equinox and OSGi provide a fundamental infrastructure for defining modules, managing lifecycles and facilitating collaboration between modules. Both are addressing the programming challenges in dynamic, modular and extensible systems.

The webinar will start with a short introduction to Cloud computing. Using the g-Eclipse framework, a distributed, virtual infrastructure will be set-up. Leveraging OSGi and ECF frameworks, a manageable distributed runtime will be started in order to deploy an application dynamically. The front end for the application will be provided with the support of the RAP application. The live demonstration will show how "goodies" from the Eclipse ecosystem can be combined to build a future SaaS platform.

Total running time 53:29 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

There is more than Require-Bundle? Other things than the Extension-Registry for extensibility? Bundles can be really dynamic, without restarting the system? Wow, this sounds strange - at least to many Eclipse developers.

This webinar gives a brief overview of what OSGi gives you to implement real modular and dynamic applications, including Import-Package vs. Require-Bundle, OSGi-Services and where to use them in Eclipse-based apps, and more.

Total running time 50:25 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

As part of the OSGi 4.2 specification, there is a new spec (RFC119) intended to standardize the distribution and network discovery of OSGi services. The ECF project (http://www.eclipse.org/ecf) has implemented the latest available draft and this is included in the Galileo release. Scott will present his open source, open protocol, open provider approach to implementing this spec, show example applications and discuss how others may extend and/or replace the implementation. He'll also touch on some basic issues of distributed services, such as network transparency and 'leaky' abstractions like synchronous remote procedure call (RPC).

Total running time 56:21 minutes

This video was recorded at Eclipse Day at the Googleplex.

OSGi has been gaining a lot of popularity in the software industry as of late. As an Eclipse developer, you should be aware that the Eclipse runtime (Equinox) since version 3.0 has been built on top OSGi and you have been writing OSGi bundles. The goal of this talk is to introduce the Eclipse developer to "OSGi-isms" and to answer some of these questions:

• What's the difference between an Eclipse plug-in and an OSGi bundle?
• Is there more than Require-Bundle? Why do all the OSGi guys scream about Import-Package?
• If OSGi is truly dynamic, why does Eclipse ask me to restart every time I install something?
• What's up with OSGi services, how do they compare to extensions widely used in Eclipse?

Total running time 1 hour, 01:28 minutes

This video was recorded at Eclipse Day at the Googleplex.

Wayne and Lynn give the latest Eclipse news for August 2009. Topics covered are the AJAX Tools Framework (ATF) project, e4 along with the e4 webinars and feedback contest, the EGit project, the Eclipse for Silverlight project, the IP Log approval process, an upcoming Eclipse training series, Eclipse Summit Europe and a Maven repository at Eclipse.

Total running time 14:51 minutes

The p2 provisioning platform has replaced Update Manager as a mechanism for managing Eclipse based applications. While p2 is most notably recognized for managing Eclipse installs, p2 has been designed as a general purpose provisioning platform for OSGi and Eclipse RCP.

In this webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use p2 to manage your own RCP based application. We will present examples of how you can include the p2 provisioning platform in your existing RCP application to support: 1) software installs, 2) system upgrades, and 3) configuration management. In particular, we will demonstrate how you can:

• Make use of the p2 provisioning platform for software management
• Integrate the creation of p2 repositories into your build system
• Reuse the p2 user interface and existing work-flows
• Customize the p2 user interface for your specific needs
• Debug common pitfalls

The webinar assumes a basic understanding of what RCP development is. No prior p2 experience is needed.

Part 1 - Total running time 29:03 minutes
Part 2 - Total running time 31:41 minutes

Most people who know OSGi are familiar with it as a modularity solution. Surprisingly, if you look at the major app servers using OSGi they all but ignore the Service Layer. However the OSGi Service Layer is a crucial part of writing well decoupled software. Services simplify object oriented programing because they significantly reduce the coupling in a system. However, services are usually understood as being heavy-weight communications-based services as in SOA. Ten years ago, OSGi introduced an in-VM service oriented programming model that provides most of the SOA benefits at virtually zero runtime cost. OSGi combines strong modularity with well-defined, dynamic services. In R4.2, with the addition of Service Hooks, the OSGi service model will become symmetric. It will then support discovery of clients waiting for services as well as providers registering services. This dynamic model works surprising well in a large number of real world use cases. This session will explore why a symmetric service oriented programming model is important and can significantly reduce the complexity of developing large complex systems.

This video was recorded at EclipseCon 2009.

Total running time 40:23 minutes

When reusing existing plugins for something innovative, you're likely to do things the original plugin author has not anticipated. This typically brings about some kinds of compromise:

• You adjust your requirements to what the reused plugins provide. Thus you settle for a different product than you intended.
• Or, you refrain from reuse but develop everything from scratch, settling for much lower productivity.
• Or, you apply some brute force method (like copy&paste) to get your job done, but then you settle for a brittle design, that is a pain to maintain.

With Object Teams it is possible to eat the cake (apply unanticipated adaptations by disciplined aspect bindings) and still have it (sustain a well modularized, maintainable design). OT/Equinox brings this power to the development of Eclipse plugins (Equinox bundles).

This video was recorded at EclipseCon 2009.

Total running time 52:59 minutes

OSGi has been in the press a lot lately. Everywhere you turn there is some new product or project adopting the technology. From Eclipse to Apache to Spring. From servers to desktops to embedded. OSGi enables the creation of highly modular, dynamic Java-based systems.

Wondering what it's all about? Join book author and Equinox OSGi project co-lead Jeff McAffer and PDE OSGi tooling lead Chris Aniszczyk from EclipseSource for an introduction to Equinox and OSGi concepts and a look at the breadth and depth of technology available in this space.

This mini-course is designed to give you a clear understanding of the essential concepts, facilities and advantages of this key technology. This session will be of use to anyone interested in building flexible systems in Java. It is particularly useful for technical managers and decision makers to help them better understand the overall runtime technology.

SAP hosted an Eclipse DemoCamp in Walldorf, Germany to celebrate the Galileo release. There were 200 attendees and the demos were recorded in 2 parts. This is part 2.

Video 1 - A New View on Tables - a Flexible Framework to Show Tabular Data in SWT Tables and Trees
Michael Scharf (Wind River)
Running time 15:52 minutes

Video 2 - Modeling is Fun!
Achim Demelt (eXXcellent solutions)
Running time 14:32 minutes

Video 3 - Dynamic OSGi Application Using Equinox
Jochen Hiller (Deutsche Telekom AG) & Frank Gerhardt (Gerhardt Informatics)
Running time 15:10 minutes

Video 4 - Equinox Based SOA Security Framework - a Future Eclipse Project
Elmar Eperiesi-Beck (CORISECIO)
Running time 15:29 minutes

Video 5 - Equinox on Servers - an Introduction to the Eclipse Gyrex Project
Gunnar Wagenknecht (AGETO)
Running time 15:21 minutes

Video 6 - Virtual Embedded Devices with OSGi, Eclipse and Flash
Marcus Harringer (MicroDoc GmbH)
Running time 15:32 minutes

Video 7 - TMF Xtext: a Self-Experiment
Guy Philipp Bollbach (itemis)
Running time 19:37 minutes

Over the course of the last 5 years, LinkedIn has been built using relatively simple technologies: front end web applications (tomcat/servlet/jsp), backend services (jetty/spring remoting), databases, replication, jms. Although the web site was scaling adequately, LinkedIn had some big challenges to overcome:

• a growing engineering team working on a monolithic code base (albeit modular)
• a growing product team wanting more and more features, faster
• a growing operations team deploying more and more servers
• and more...

In March of 2008, a group of Senior Engineers started a project to explore the best available technologies which could help in building the next generation of the architecture that would address those challenges. The new architecture involved using OSGI/Spring DM as the foundation because it had the right properties we were interested in. The code was migrated to a more modular paradigm using binary consumption.

This session will demonstrate how we integrated OSGi, the pros and cons of the changes, the pain points as well as the migration strategy.

This video was recorded at EclipseCon 2009.

Total running time 41:49 minutes

The OSGi platform provides an attractive foundation for building enterprise applications. However, it lacks a rich programming model for components declaration and consumption. New in OSGi 4.2, the Blueprint Service (inspired by Spring Dynamic Modules project) addresses this gap by offering a proven programming model based on inversion of control, suitable for enterprise (Java) applications.

This talk will provide a tour of the Blueprint Service: we'll begin with an architectural overview, continue with the core features such as creating and wiring modules, lifecycle management and service registry interaction all without being tied to the OSGi API and conclude by looking at the Blueprint Service in action.

This video was recorded at EclipseCon 2009.

Total running time 51:44 minutes

In this video Jeff McAffer, EclipseSource CTO, demonstrates how to define, provision and manage remote Eclipse, Equinox and OSGi-based systems using p2 technology. The presentation highlights the extensibility and flexibility by showing a combination of standard p2 function and EclipseSource extensions for remote scenarios. Upcoming videos build on this base and show the use of p2 in server and cloud-based environments.

Total running time 18:47 minutes

In this interview from EclipseCon 2009, Michael Coté talks with multi-RedMonkTV guest Jeff McAffer, one of the leads on the Equinox project. Having spoken with him about Equinox many times before, Coté starts by asking Jeff to give an update on what’s been going on in Equinox-land of late. In doing so, they speak about how Equinox is related to the OSGi Enterprise and other specifications. Also, Jeff mentions the p2 and other sub and related projects. Since there’s always great interest in p2, Coté asks Jeff to give us more details on it, especially how it can be used to assemble and deploy different packages of Eclipse components - for example, Eclipse IDE plugins.

Getting back to the server-side aspects of Equinox, Jeff tells us how Equinox has been fairing out in the field. He goes over a long, impressive list of middleware and application server projects and products that are using it. Next, Coté asks what the experience to transitioning to OSGi-driven development has looked like in practice.

Finally, since they last talked, Jeff has moved from IBM, to his own company Code9, and then to EclipseSource. Coté asks him to tell us all about that.

Total running time 21:38 minutes

In this podcast, Jeff McAffer discusses the EclipseCon 2009 Runtime track, OSGi, Equinox, and the state of the Eclipse Runtime Project.

Total running time 19:01 minutes

This presentation introduces Equinox and its use as a set of building blocks for creating applications. We overview the architecture and technology, and demonstrate many of the building blocks using an example client/server application.

Total running time 17:09 minutes

This presentation will demonstrate the new and noteworthy features in Ganymede related to security. We will first cover the new Secure Storage feature, which allows for the protection of sensitive data such as user passwords. Next we will cover Trusted Bundles, a mechanism for doing authorization of bundles based on the code signer. Finally we will look at the Login Framework, an integration of the Java Authentication and Authorization Service into the Eclipse platform.

Total running time 17:17 minutes

This presentation covers the new p2 UI and shows how p2 helps users manage their plug-ins and stay up-to-date.

Topics include:

• Overview and installation
• Installation from a local site
• Update of installed software
• Installation through dropins folder

Total running time 11:41 minutes

Plug-ins are everywhere in Eclipse so come learn about how to develop them! Depending on the audience, for the first half of the talk, I will discuss what a plug-in is and what tooling is provided around developing plug-ins. For the second half, I will discuss tips and tricks that can save you time in developing plug-ins and will also talk about some lesser known, but extremely useful, parts of PDE.

This presentation was recorded at Eclipse Day at the Googleplex on June 24, 2008.

About Chris Aniszczyk:
Chris Aniszczyk is the technical lead for the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) project at Eclipse. Chris also commits on various other Eclipse projects, has the honor to represent the committers on the Eclipse Board of Directors and sits on the Eclipse Architecture Council. Chris's passions are blogging, software advocacy, tooling and anything Eclipse. He's always available to discuss open-source or Eclipse over a frosty beverage.

Total running time 47:34 minutes

Security is an important concern for applications written on top of Equinox and the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. Spanning areas such as protection of sensitive user data, authentication of platform users and authorization of bundle code, Eclipse has a growing list of features to support important security related use cases. In this session, we will cover the new enhancements related to security in the Ganymede release of Eclipse and Equinox. In particular, we will discuss the following new features:

• Secure storage – protecting sensitive data (e.g. passwords) using encryption
• Trusted Bundles – denying the loading of bundles based on signer information
• Login Framework – integrating authentication of users based on JAAS

The format of the webinar will be a presentation plus some live demos, and will be similar in nature to those presented at the security-related EclipseCon sessions in March. Attendees should be familiar with the fundamentals of Java security and with the core concepts of Eclipse RCP and the Equinox framework. .

Total running time 52:30 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

Equinox p2 is a component of the Eclipse Equinox project. p2 provides a framework for provisioning Eclipse-based applications. It replaces Update Manager as a mechanism for managing your Eclipse install, searching for updates and installing new functionality.

Total running time 1 hour, 08:26 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

This video screencast shows how dependencies can be created and managed between Equinox Services.

Total running time 06:45 minutes

This video screencast shows a simplified example of Equinox services in action. It shows declarative services being dynamically discovered using a service tracker that updates the user interface to show the services that are available. The example also shows Equinox declarative services and the JFace databinding APIs in use.

Total running time 13:15 minutes

This video screencast briefly describes Equinox services and goes through the steps required to create and run a service using the Equinox Declarative Services (in incubation at the time of recording).

Total running time 08:45 minutes

In this screencast, Ricco Deutscher or the Eclipse Swordfish project walks us through the architecture, intentions, and road-map for the OSGi-tools SOA runtime, Swordfish. As Ricco outlines, Swordfish came about from the desire to benefit from combining the use of JBI, SCA and OSGi. JBI lends a good packing methodology, SCA helps with the execution of service components and OSGi adds in the dynamic functionality needed and helps glue it all together.

Total running time 20:23 minutes

While at the Eclipse Runtime Summit, Michael Coté had the chance to talk with Iona's Eric Newcomer (CTO of Iona, Co-Chair, Enterprise Expert Group, OSGi Alliance, and well respected enterprise coding guy) about the emergence of OSGi as a server-side, or enterprise, technology.

They discuss how OSGi came to be a technology of interest in the enterprise space, and move on to the formation of the OSGi Enterprise Expert Group. Eric goes through a high level list of what the "enterprise" here means: mostly the usual suspects of security, adding distributed functionality, messaging, scalability and performance.

Coté asks Eric about the process that the OSGi Alliance uses and they discuss the interesting role of the full time spec writer that the OSGi Alliance uses. As Eric outlines, there's a process pretty similar to the JCP process, where the deliverables are a specification, a reference implementation and TCKs to verify implementations.

They then discuss the overall idea of componentizing Java - what OSGi bundles and modules seek to do. As the Java world is pretty well split between Sun and OSGi's ambitions here, Eric gives some thoughts on it and a little bit of the historic background between the two parties.

Finally, we end up with a rough road-map for the OSGi Enterprise Expert Group and Eric's thoughts on the Eclipse Runtime Summit.

Total running time 21:25 minutes

In this two part screencast, Michael Coté talks with Andy Smith about the Eclipse SODA project, part of the Eclipse OHF effort.

In the first part, Andy gives us an overview of the device populated network with edge and centralized servers that SODA services. He then explains the Stepstone use-case for in-home medical monitoring devices that serves as an example use of SODA.
Total running time 16:01 minutes

In the second part, Andy demos how the dynamic nature of SODA, provided by Eclipse Equinox, allows for the easy, dynamic deployment and use of remote devices. Also, be sure to check out the A Smarter World for Charley for the Charley scenario mentioned.
Total running time 17:08 minutes

Michael Coté has a screencast, this time around the idea of using Eclipse’s OSGi framework for a back to front runtime. The first installment - in two parts - is on the core of that the Eclipse runtime, Equinox, done by Jeff McAffer.

As a usage note, be sure to check out the full-screen mode in the widgets if you’d like to see a larger picture. There are also many different formats - even audio only - available on the show page.

Total running time:

• Overview - Part 1: 19:43 minutes
• Demo - Part 2: 12:49 minutes

This interview is about OSGi, the dynamic module system for Java. Our guests are Peter Kriens (OSGi's Technical Director) and BJ Hargrave (OSGi's CTO). We'll discuss what OSGi is all about, and why and in which contexts it is useful. Additionally we are having a look at the different layers of OSGi and where and how they are used. Other questions discussed are: What means dynamicity in an OSGi environment? Where is OSGi used? What’s the future of OSGi? How does OSGi interact with existing middleware solutions? How can I run several versions of the same JAR at the same time? Where are OSGi’s problems?

Total running time 45:23 minutes

This webinar will be an introduction to OSGi: what it is, when you should use it and how to get started learning it.

OSGi is the powerful dynamic framework that underlies the Eclipse IDE and platform, but its use is not restricted to Eclipse. In fact it is used everywhere from mobile phone and vehicle entertainment systems to enterprise application servers. It is, essentially, the module system for Java.

The level of this talk will be introductory and will not assume prior knowledge of either OSGi or Eclipse (although knowledge of standard Java *will* be assumed). Also, we will discuss some aspects of OSGi that are not commonly used in Eclipse plug-in development, for example, usage of the Service Registry. So even experienced plug-in developers should get something from it.

Total running time 1 hour, 03:24 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

In this webinar, Brian and Chris will walk you through the basics of using the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE). For the first half, they will discuss what a plug-in is and what tooling is provided around developing plug-ins. For the second half, they will discuss tips and tricks that can save you time in developing plug-ins and will also talk about some lesser known, but extremely useful, parts of PDE.

Featuring special guest, Wassim Melhem of Embarcadero.

Total running time 1 hour, 02:04 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

OSGi is being adopted in an increasing number of projects. The spec provides a common model for writing and deploying applications to local or remote computers in modularized form. Instead of creating monolithic applications, the OSGi spec allows the collaboration of many small components. This presentation shows you why a spec like OSGi is crucial, what it really encompasses, Eclipse integration and what the future developments will be.

Total running time 58:23 minutes

The Eclipse Equinox project produces the core runtime used by Eclipse and the reference implementation for both the OSGi 4.1 framework and JSR 291 specifications. This webinar introduces attendees to OSGi and how developers can use Equinox to create component based applications. We highlight several new Equinox features in the Europa release, specifically improvements to the application model, server-side support and launching the runtime.

For code examples, see the File Link for this resource that is type "Other" (zip file). Most of the code for the full demo can be found in the CVS in the Equinox incubator:

• CVS Server: dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/eclipse
• Demo Directory: equinox-incubator/demos/app-model/

Total running time 53:10 minutes

Thanks to Adobe for contributing their Adobe Acrobat Connect product to host this webinar.

InfoQ recently sat down with Peter Kriens of the OSGi Alliance to learn more about OSGi. Kriens discussed OSGi's origins in the mobile space, it's integration with Eclipse, the current integration work with Spring, and the future R5 specification. He also discussed the ongoing debate over OSGi and JSR 277, and gave his perspective on what an ideal solution would be for modularity at the JVM level.

A transcript is available with the video link

At the Eclipse Marketing Symposium, Coté had the chance to talk with Innoopract's Jochen Krause. They started talking about Innoopract's decision to move to Eclipse several years ago. At the moment, Innoopract is working with Eclipse on the Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform project, or RAP, which Jochen talks about. Then they move onto talking about the component-driven programming model that OSGi enables, along with several "ah-ha moments" for typical developers moving into that style of development. Finally, they talk more about Innoopract's business model, and drill a little deeper into the idea of "sponsored development" for open source projects.

Total running time 15:57 minutes

In this episode of the Eclipse Member Company Europa podcasts, Genuitec president Maher Masri talks about the Europa release. He says that with Europa, Eclipse continues the "all can win" philosophy providing a platform that benefits both large and small companies. Masri notes that Europa has embraced the OSGi spec so that Eclipse is no longer just a tools platform, but that it is also a runtime application. He finishes with a look at some of the new features coming in the next version of MyEclipse.

Check out MyEclipse on Eclipse Plugin Central (EPIC).

Total running time 07:03 minutes

The microService Architecture (mSA) Backplane is an OSGi-based infrastructure that will be the basis for many future software products from BEA. This project has been in development for about a year, and currently consists of about 100 different OSGi bundles that encompass functions such as logging, thread management, HTTP servlets, web services, and transaction management.

In the course of our work, we have learned a great deal about the process of breaking down existing, production-quality software into individual modules, and we have learned how to effectively use some of the best features of OSGi, such as the class loading infrastructure and the service registry. We also continue to be challenged by other aspects of OSGi, such as the security infrastructure and the mechanisms for starting and launching bundles.

In this talk, we will describe the mSA Backplane, and we will concentrate on the lessons we have learned about OSGi in the process of building it. We will assume that attendees are familiar with fundamental OSGi concepts.

Total running time 46:25 minutes

In this screencast, Michael Coté talks with Eclipse Equinox project lead Jeff McAffer about the new version of the Eclipse Equinox OSGi framework in Eclipse Europa. We see a demo of the the new server-side capabilities in Equinox and the development model used. The notion of "modules" and "components" is fast becoming an important topic in the Java world, so it's interesting to see the Eclipse platform's framework moving from the desktop to the server.

For detailed viewing, check out the larger sized video.

Total running time 22:09 minutes

Eclipse Evanglist Wayne Beaton discusses the present and future of OSGi with Alex Blewitt, Editor-in-chief of EclipseZone, and Neil Bartlett, OSGi enthusiast and author of a series of papers discussing OSGi.

Total running time 07:47 minutes

In this podcast, Jeff McAffer, Eclipse Equinox Project Lead, discusses Eclipse membership in the OSGi Alliance, the factors motivating the adoption of OSGi as the component model for Eclipse, the cool places that OSGi turns up, and the rosy future of OSGi and Equinox.

Total running time 30:13 minutes

Tune in to hear Riyad Kalla and Jeff McAffer discuss the current state of OSGi, Equinox, the Eclipse platform and the Eclipse RCP effort, as well as the future direction of it all.

Total running time 58:10 minutes