Setting preferences

After the plug-in is installed or a new workspace is created the preferences used by the plug-in must be set in order for it to work properly. The preferences can be set in two ways, either by setting them in the preferences dialog or by importing previously exported settings.

The preference dialog

The preference dialog is shown by selecting 'Window->Preferences...'. Selecting 'OSGi' in the left-hand list shows the preferences used by the plug-in.

Frameworks

In the framework preferences you specify the frameworks that the plug-in should be able to use. The specified frameworks are used by the plug-in when debugging and building bundle projects, where the checked framework is used by default.

When you select to add or edit a framework a dialog is shown where you specify a name, type of framework and where framework is installed. The name needs to be unique and is later used to identify the framework.

The framework types supported are:

• Knopflerfish 1.3
• Oscar 1.0
• Eclipse 3.1

After selecting framework type you select the directory where the framework is stored. For all frameworks types it works to point to the top level directory of the framework. For Knopflerfish you can also point to the knopflerish.org or the knopflerish.org/osgi directories, which can be useful if you work against subversion. If you select an invalid directory for the specified framework type you will get an error message at the bottom of the dialog box. If the checkbox 'Use default settings' is checked and the directory is valid, the main class, the runtime libraries needed to launch the framework and bundles accompanying the framework distribution will automatically be listed.

You can override the default settings by unchecking 'Use default settings'. This will allow you to change the main class, the runtime libraries and the bundles. For instance if you have embedded the framework into a launcher you will want to add the launcher libraries to the runtime libraries and also change the main class which is invoked on launch. Or maybe you want to add or remove some bundles from the framework. The bundles listed here can later be used through bundle repositories when building and running bundle projects. All user defined changes that are made are shown in bold text in the list.

If you have made a lot of changes to customize a framework and need to install a new framework, for example to upgrade to a later version, you can select to import user settings from the existing preferences to the new framework. You add the new framework, uncheck the 'Use default settings' button and then use the 'Import Libraries...' function at the bottom right. In the dialog shown, you select an existing framework to take settings from and what to import.

Execution environments

In the environments preferences you specify which execution environments that bundle projects can be built against. By default three environments are available:

• Default JRE
• CDC-1.0/Foundation-1.0
• OSGi/Minimum-1.0

When default JRE is selected the bundle projects are built against the libraries of the default JRE selected in the Java->Installed JREs preferences. When CDC-1.0/Foundation-1.0 or OSGi/Minimum-1.0 is selected the bundle projects are built against the respective profiles specified by OSGi.

When you select to add or edit an execution environment a dialog is shown where you specify an environmet name and the libraries the environment consists of. You can also attach source to the added libraries, which can be useful if you later want to step into the code when debugging.

Bundle repositories

Bundle repositories are used when searching for bundles. The plug-in searches for bundles to find packages available for import by bundle projects, to find bundles to add to a bundle projects build path and to find bundles to add to launch configurations. In order to have any bundles available you need to set up at least one repository. The repositories are searched in the order they are listed. Only repositories which are checked, i.e. marked as active, are searched.

When you select to add or edit a bundle repository a dialog is shown where you specify a name, type of repository and repository configuration. The name needs to be unique and is later used to identify the repository.

The repository types supported are:

• Framework Repository
• OBR Reposistory - Not Yet Implemented

Framework repositories are used for bundles that are part of an installed framework distribution. The repository configuration for this type is the name of the framework as specified under the Frameworks section. The configuration dropdown box will contain the framework names of the frameworks that have been configured. If a framework name is missing in the dropdown, a possible reason is that the framework has not yet been saved, which is not done until you close the preference window.

OBR repositories are used for bundles published using Oscar Bundle Repository. The repository configuration for this type is the URL of the repository XML file. OBR repositories have not yet been implemented in the plug-in.

Exporting preferences

You can export the OSGi preferences by selecting 'File->Export...'. In the dialog shown you select 'Preferences'. A new dialog will be shown where you specify which preferences to export. Here you can select 'OSGi settings', which will include all OSGi preferences made. The preferences are exported to a file. The file can be used to share preferences in a team or, if you have created a new workspace you can use it to avoid setting up all the preferences again.

Importing preferences

You can import previously exported preferences by selecting 'File->Import...'. In the dialog shown you select 'Preferences'. A new dialog will be shown where you specify the file to import the preferences from.

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