Configuration Installer Factory

The configuration installer factory provides support for configurations to the OSGI installer. The provisioning of artifacts is handled by installer providers like the file installer or the JCR installer.

Configurations¶

Configuration file names are related to the PID and factory PID. The structure of the file name is as follows:

filename ::= <pid> ( '-' <subname> )? ('.cfg'|'.config')

If the form is <pid>('.cfg'|'.config'), the file contains the properties for a Managed Service. The <pid> is then the PID of the Managed Service. See the Configuration Admin service for details.

When a Managed Service Factory is used, the situation is different. The <pid> part then describes the PID of the Managed Service Factory. You can pick any <subname>, the installer will then create an instance for the factory for each unique name. For example:

com.acme.xyz.cfg // configuration for Managed Service
// com.acme.xyz
com.acme.abc-default.cfg // Managed Service Factory,
// creates an instance for com.acme.abc

If a configuration is modified, the file installer will write the configuration back to a file to ensure peristence across restarts (if sling.fileinstall.writeback is enabled).

Property Files (.cfg)¶

Configuration files ending in '.cfg' are plain property files (java.util.Property). The format is simple:

file ::= ( header | comment ) *
header ::= <header> ( ':' | '=' ) <value> ( '\<nl> <value> ) *
comment ::= '#' <any>

Notice that this model only supports string properties. For example:

# default port
ftp.port = 21

Configuration Files (.config)¶

Configuration files ending in '.config' use the format of the Apache Felix ConfigAdmin implementation. It allows to specify the type and cardinality of a configuration property and is not limited to string values.

The first line of such a file might start with a comment line (a line starting with a #). Comments within the file are not allowed.

The format is:

file ::= (comment) (header) *
comment ::= '#' <any>
header ::= prop '=' value
prop ::= symbolic-name // 1.4.2 of OSGi Core Specification
symbolic-name ::= token { '.' token } 
token ::= { [ 0..9 ] | [ a..z ] | [ A..Z ] | '_' | '-' }
value ::= [ type ] ( '[' values ']' | '(' values ')' | simple ) 
values ::= simple { ',' simple } 
simple ::= '"' stringsimple '"'
type ::= <1-char type code>
stringsimple ::= <quoted string representation of the value where both '"' and '=' need to be escaped>

The quoted string format is equal to the definition from HTTP 1.1 (RFC2616), except that both '"' and '=' need to be escaped.

The 1 character type code is one of:

• 'T' : simple string
• 'I' : Integer
• 'L' : Long
• 'F' : Float
• 'D' : Double
• 'X' : Byte
• 'S' : Short
• 'C' : Character
• 'B' : Boolean

A number of such .config files exist in the Sling codebase and can be used as examples.

Project Info¶

• Configuration installer factory (org.apache.sling.installer.factory.configuration)