Develop non-GUI OSGi application with Eclipse PDE

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I would like to leverage Eclipse PDE to develop server-side application without GUI. Is it possible and what is the correct way? Are there tutorials on the web?

I have experience on developing Eclipse RCP applications but how does the process differes when I do not need GUI (swt, etc.), what is the best practice?

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javaeclipseosgieclipse-rcp
Can you clarify your understanding of "server-side application without GUI"? Do you want to develop a program that is invoked from the command line, does some processing and then exits? Do you want to develop a program that offers a web service/api or a web site? Do you want to use PDE because of your preference for OSGi or just for managing the class path? - Gunnar
Sorry for delaying the response. My application is currently invoked from command line and I want to use OSGi for structuring the application and simplify its deployment - Antonio

1 Answers

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You can basically use the same tooling as with GUI based applications.

On the other hand normally you only really need the Eclipse PDE tooling for GUIs. For non OSGi applications it is easier to just use maven and the maven bundle plugin. In this case you develop the non GUI application like a non OSGi application. Most of the OSGi handling is done by the maven bundle plugin (using bnd). See my Apache Karaf Tutorials for some examples.

Another approach is using bndtools. It is much more integrated but a little less familiar for maven users.