Apache Felix iPOJO

Apache Felix iPOJO Online Manipulator

iPOJO generally requires an additional packaging step to prepare the bundle to be managed by iPOJO. Despite this step doesn't change the class semantic, it can be a little annoying. The online manipulator avoids this offline step!

Features

iPOJO is based on a bytecode manipulation. This manipulate is safe and does not change the class semantics. Classes can still used after the manipulation without iPOJO. However this manipulation is required for iPOJO management. Generally, this manipulation occurs offline during the packaging time. The online manipulator allows to do this manipulation at install time.

The online manipulator:

This is quite useful if you don't want to add an extra packaging step, and provides the same capabilities as the "regular" way.

Usage

The online-manipulator is in fact an URL Handler. So, it will process every bundle using a special URL prefix. To use it, just follows the below instructions:

Install and Start the URL Handler

Download and install the iPOJO online manipulator. You can download it from the Felix download page

Install a bundle using the ipojo: URL prefix

Using the handler is quite easy. When you want to deploy a non-manipulated iPOJO bundle just use an url like

install ipojo:file:/.../bundle.jar

The complete URL syntax is 

install ipojo:bundle_url[!metadata_url]

When using the ipojo: prefix, the OSGi platform delegates the loading to the url handler manipulating the bundle before its installation. This manipulation is exactly the same as the offline manipulation.

Dealing with metadata

If the installed bundle contains a metadata.xml file either in its root or in the META-INF directory, the online manipulator will use it. However, you can also provide an external metadata.xml file by indicating the url of the file like in

install ipojo:bundle_url!metadata_url

If you provide such url, it will override the contained metadata.xml file.