First release

So now the first release of Osmorc, the plugin that enables development of OSGI based applications in IDEA is available in IDEA’s plugin repository.

In this first release only the basic connections between bundles via Export-Package, Import-Package and Require-Bundle are implemented. Version checking isn’t done yet for example. In it’s current state it’s somehow a proof of concept, that OSGI support in IDEA is possible.

IDEA modules don’t allow to export or import only specific packages. The pragmatic way taken in Osmorc is to create module dependencies to all modules that export any of the needed packages and to use an inspection that will mark any invalid imports and usages. Surely, there are situations that are possible with OSGI but won’t be possible or will produce strange effects in Osmorc, but I think that most cases will work with this pragmatic approach. Let’s see how far we’ll get with it.

My plans for this plugin are big. Currently I’m envisioning support for the development of Eclipse RCP applications, but I’ll do baby steps here. There’s still much to do in the basic OSGI support area.