Part 1. Introducing OSGi: modularity, lifecycle, and services

The OSGi framework defines a dynamic module system for Java. It gives you better control over the structure of your code, the ability to dynamically manage your code’s lifecycle, and a loosely coupled approach for code collaboration. Even better, it’s fully documented in a very elaborate specification. Unfortunately, the specification was written for people who are going to implement it rather than use it. In the first part of this book, we’ll remedy this situation by effectively creating a user-oriented companion guide to the OSGi framework specification. We’ll delve into its details by breaking it into three layers: module, lifecycle, and services. We’ll explain what you need to understand from the specification to effectively use OSGi technology.