DX OSGi Implementation

OSGi Framework startup

The OSGi framework is started once DX spring context is instantiated. In turn, FrameworkService initializes Karaf instance which registers all the bundles that will initially be started and made available to all deployed bundles. Of particular note, FrameworkService loads its configuration from the felix-framework.properties file which contains important settings such as which packages are made available to all bundles.

OSGi Servlet Bridge

The OSGi servlet bridge consists of two parts, a proxy servlet that is mapped as a servlet in the WEB-INF/web.xml file of the Digital Experience Manager web application and then the actual bridge that will make it possible to call “regular” servlet inside the OSGi framework.

Digital Experience Manager Module Extender

The core of the module integration is in the jahia/bundles/jahiamodule-extender project. Here the Activator class is the starting point, that registers the bundle listeners to listen for the deployment and undeployment of bundles and does all the registration work inside Digital Experience Manager. This is where most of the OSGi “magic” is happening, including the registration and dispatching to JSPs.

Bundle packaging

We can have both system bundles that will be handled by Karaf (such as Karaf extensions) and DX bundles (common DX modules).

We are relaying on Karaf for system bundle. All the system bundles are in the Karaf folder, by default located in digital-factory-data/karaf. From here you can use all the Karaf framework to deploy any bundle / feature / kar file. See more information here:
https://karaf.apache.org/manual/latest

DX has a also watched directory located in digital-factory-data/modules that contains all dx installed bundles

OSGi and Digital Experience Manager Module States

Bundle life cycle

With the installation of a bundle in the OSGi runtime the bundle is persisted in a local bundle cache. The OSGi runtime then tries to resolve all dependencies of the bundle.

If all required dependencies are resolved, the bundle is in the RESOLVED status otherwise it is in the INSTALLED status.

If several bundles exist which would satisfy the dependency, then the bundle with the highest version is used. If the versions are the same, then the bundle with the lowest install ID will be used (the bundle gets a unique identifier assigned by the framework during the installation). If the bundle is started, its status is STARTING. Afterwards it gets the ACTIVE status.

This life cycle is depicted in the following graphic:

Digital Experience Manager extends the default OSGi lifecycle states to add intermediary states that detail the state in which a module is. You can find the description of these states in the following table.