using maven bundle plugin for osgi development and set dependencies

Question

I'm making my first steps in osgi bundle development using maven (maven-bundle-plugin) and apache karaf. My question is: How can i import packages of another bundle?

If I have two bundles A and B. Lets say Bundle A exports a package "package.from.bundle.A". This i can declare in the pom.xml of Bundle A Project:

 ...
<instructions>
 ...
  <Export-Package>
    package.from.bundle.A*;version=${project.version}
  </Export-Package>
  <Import-Package>
       *
  </Import-Package>
</instructions>
...

But how can i declare that i want to use that package in Bundle B? If I simply write the packagename between the import-package tag of project B's pom file, this does not work...

 ...
<instructions>
 ...
  <Export-Package>
  </Export-Package>
  <Import-Package>
       package.from.bundle.A
  </Import-Package>
</instructions>
...

How does maven know from to which bundle project this package is related to? How can i use dependencies between my bundles using maven?

thank you

Holly Cummins Holly Cummins · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-14T01:13:39

The maven bundle plugin uses bnd under the covers, which uses bytecode analysis to work out the imports retroactively from the compiled code. The package exports are more of a design thing, which is why they need to be explicitly specified.

You can look at the manifests being generated in your target folder, which I'd recommend to make sure you understand what's being done on your behalf.

using maven bundle plugin for osgi development and set dependencies

2 Answers