osgi - Test Apache Felix with Java 8 and JavaFX

Question

I'm working on example with JavaFX 2.2 and Java 8. I created this simple Apache Felix Activator:

Activator:

import javafx.application.Platform;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import org.osgi.framework.BundleActivator;
import org.osgi.framework.BundleContext;

public class Activator implements BundleActivator
{

    Stage stage;

    @Override
    public void start(BundleContext context) throws Exception
    {

        Platform.runLater(new Runnable()
        {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                stage = new Stage();
                BorderPane pane = new BorderPane();
                Scene scene = new Scene(pane, 400, 200);
                pane.setCenter(new Label("This is a JavaFX Scene in a Stage"));
                stage.setScene(scene);
                stage.show();
            }
        });
        System.out.println("Main Module is loaded!");

    }

    @Override
    public void stop(BundleContext context) throws Exception
    {
        Platform.runLater(new Runnable()
        {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                stage.close();
            }
        });
        System.out.println("Main Module is unloaded!");
    }
}

POM

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>DX-57</groupId>
    <artifactId>DX-57_Main</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>bundle</packaging>

    <name>DX-57_Main OSGi Bundle</name>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.osgi</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.osgi.core</artifactId>
            <version>5.0.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.7</version>
                <extensions>true</extensions>
                <configuration>
                    <instructions>
                        <Import-Package>*</Import-Package>
                        <Bundle-Activator>dx57.dx._main.Activator</Bundle-Activator>
                        <Export-Package>*</Export-Package>
                    </instructions>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>build-for-felix</id>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                    <artifactId>org.apache.felix.main</artifactId>
                    <version>4.2.1</version>
                    <scope>provided</scope>
                </dependency>
                <!-- To include a shell:
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                    <artifactId>org.apache.felix.gogo.shell</artifactId>
                    <version>0.10.0</version>
                </dependency>
                -->
            </dependencies>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>1.7</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>compile</id>
                                <phase>package</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>run</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <target>
                                        <pathconvert property="plugins.jars" pathsep="${path.separator}">
                                            <path refid="maven.runtime.classpath"/>
                                            <map from="${project.build.directory}${file.separator}classes" to=""/>
                                        </pathconvert>
                                        <pathconvert pathsep=" " property="bundles">
                                            <path path="${plugins.jars}"/>
                                            <mapper>
                                                <chainedmapper>
                                                    <flattenmapper/>
                                                    <globmapper from="*" to="file:modules/*" casesensitive="no"/>
                                                </chainedmapper>
                                            </mapper>
                                        </pathconvert>
                                        <propertyfile file="${project.build.directory}/config.properties">
                                            <entry key="felix.auto.start" value="${bundles} file:modules/${project.build.finalName}.jar"/>
                                            <entry key="org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation" value="*"/>
                                        </propertyfile>

                                        <copy file="${maven.dependency.org.apache.felix.org.apache.felix.main.jar.path}" tofile="${project.build.directory}/felix.jar"/>
                                    </target>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>2.4</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>create-executable-jar</id>
                                <phase>package</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>single</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <descriptors>
                                        <descriptor>${basedir}/src/main/assembly/felix.xml</descriptor>
                                    </descriptors>
                                    <finalName>${project.build.finalName}</finalName>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
        </profile>
        <profile>
            <id>run-on-felix</id>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                    <artifactId>org.apache.felix.main</artifactId>
                    <version>4.2.1</version>
                    <scope>provided</scope>
                </dependency>
                <!-- org.apache.felix:org.apache.felix.gogo.shell:0.6.1 useless from Maven since stdin is swallowed -->
            </dependencies>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>1.7</version>
                        <configuration>
                            <target>
                                <property name="vm.args" value=""/>
                                <pathconvert property="plugins.jars" pathsep="${path.separator}">
                                    <path refid="maven.runtime.classpath"/>
                                    <map from="${project.build.directory}${file.separator}classes" to=""/>
                                </pathconvert>
                                <makeurl property="urls" separator=" ">
                                    <path path="${plugins.jars}"/>
                                    <path location="${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}.jar"/>
                                </makeurl>
                                <propertyfile file="${project.build.directory}/run.properties">
                                    <entry key="felix.auto.start" value="${urls}"/>
                                    <entry key="felix.auto.deploy.action" value="uninstall,install,update,start"/>
                                    <entry key="org.osgi.framework.storage" value="${project.build.directory}${file.separator}felix-cache"/>
                                    <entry key="org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation" value="*"/>
                                </propertyfile>
                                <makeurl property="run.properties.url" file="${project.build.directory}/run.properties"/>
                                <java fork="true" jar="${maven.dependency.org.apache.felix.org.apache.felix.main.jar.path}">
                                    <sysproperty key="felix.config.properties" value="${run.properties.url}"/>
                                    <jvmarg line="${vm.args}"/>
                                </java>
                            </target>
                        </configuration>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
        </profile>
    </profiles>
</project>

Error:

[rcbandit@Laptop felix-framework_JavaFX]$ /opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java -jar bin/felix.jar
ERROR: Bund

Answer 1

JavaFX applications depend on packages from the JavaFX APIs, such as javafx.application and several others. Since it looks like you have built your bundle with Maven Bundle Plugin, your bundle already has these dependencies declared. This is a good thing.

In Java 8 the javafx.* packages are provided by the base JRE. However OSGi does not automatically export every package from the JRE, simply because all JREs have a bunch of non-standard packages (e.g. com.sun.* etc) that normal application code should not have access to. Therefore OSGi only makes available the packages that are defined by the relevant JCP Specification for the version of Java that you are using. For example packages such as javax.swing, org.w3c.dom, etc.

Since JavaFX is not a standard, there is no JCP Specification for JavaFX, and OSGi does not export the javafx.* packages. However you can configure OSGi to do this for you by setting the following configuration property when you launch OSGi:

org.osgi.framework.system.packages.extra=javafx.application,...

NB I have shown how to add the javafx.application package to your runtime. It is likely you will need to add several more, i.e. all of the packages from the JavaFX API. I am not sufficiently familar with JavaFX to list these, but they should be easy enough for you to find.