I’ve been toying with OSGi for the past few weeks, in an attempt to see if it is a good starting point for a project I’m working on. Let me just cut to it - OSGi is much more than just a good starting point. The framework is very ready and capable of meeting my technical requirements.

The part that I’m missing is how OSGi can fit in to my software engineering process to include Test-Driven Design (TDD) and Continuous Integration. I think the latter is a bit easier to conceptualize. But, I’m just now learning that TDD can be accomplished by combining Spring Framework with OSGi (see spring-osgi for more info).

I just want to make a couple of points regarding my learning process.

Starting with a Google search of OSGi will not lead anyone to any useful OSGi trailhead. You’ll find the OSGi implementations which is useful - but, nothing really telling you what to do next.

I would highly suggest starting here and then roll back to this

If you can understand why TDD is so important to me, you’ll surely appreciate the SpringOSGi stuff from EclipseCon2007.

Keep in mind that I’ve no desire to rationalize the differences between implementations, or a need to consider embedded/constrained deployments. My genesis is a need for modular and dynamic service delivery - at an Enterprise clip. So, here’s some stuff I’m still strugglin’ with:

• Scalability
• Fault tolerance
• Clustering?
• Security

I’m sure there are answers - I’ve just not found good resources yet. There also is no “book” to turn to. There isn’t even a book covering OSGi r4, the latest spec. The is more a testament to where OSGi is seeing its growth - in the Open Source space. But, it sure would be nice to have something to read…