View source for EIG:File-based Discovery with the Endpoint Description Extender Format

==Introduction==

Starting with version 3.5, ECF supports/implements the OSGi 4.2 Remote Service Admin (RSA)...chapter 122 in the [http://www.osgi.org/download/r4v42/r4.enterprise.pdf enterprise specification].

The RSA specification includes an xml-file-based discovery mechanism called the Endpoint Description Extender Format (edef).  This allows remote service endpoints to be discovered statically, via xml-files that contain endpoint descriptions.  These xml files, are delivered into a running framework via active bundles, as specified in section 122.8.

==Example==

There is an example of the use of the EDEF format [http://git.eclipse.org/c/ecf/org.eclipse.ecf.git/tree/examples/bundles/org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.consumer.edef here].  See the '''Remote-Service''' header in the [http://git.eclipse.org/c/ecf/org.eclipse.ecf.git/tree/examples/bundles/org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.consumer.edef/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF manifest]:

<pre>
...
Remote-Service: generic_hello.xml
</pre>

And here is the contents of generic_hello.xml in the EDEF format:

<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<endpoint-descriptions xmlns="http://www.osgi.org/xmlns/rsa/v1.0.0">
  <endpoint-description>
    <property name="ecf.endpoint.id.ns" value-type="String" value="org.eclipse.ecf.core.identity.StringID"/>
    <property name="endpoint.framework.uuid" value-type="String" value="70cd3d4b-4931-0010-1b63-d64101cefd5e"/>
    <property name="endpoint.id" value-type="String" value="ecftcp://localhost:3787/server"/>
    <property name="endpoint.service.id" value-type="Long" value="0"/>
	<property name="endpoint.package.version.org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello" value-type="String" value="3.0.0"/>
    <property name="objectClass" value-type="String">
      <array>
        <value>org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.IHello</value>
      </array>
    </property>
    <property name="remote.configs.supported" value-type="String">
      <array>
        <value>ecf.generic.server</value>
      </array>
    </property>
    <property name="remote.intents.supported" value-type="String">
      <array>
        <value>passByValue</value>
        <value>exactlyOnce</value>
        <value>ordered</value>
      </array>
    </property>
    <property name="service.id" value-type="Long" value="64"/>
    <property name="service.imported" value-type="String" value="true"/>
    <property name="service.imported.configs" value-type="String">
      <array>
        <value>ecf.generic.server</value>
      </array>
    </property>
  </endpoint-description>
</endpoint-descriptions>
</pre>

==Running Hello Example with EDEF Consumer Discovery==

In the project '''org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.host''' there is the following product configuration file:

org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.host/products/Hello Service Host (edef,generic).product

and in the project '''org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.consumer''' there is the follwoing product configuration file:

org.eclipse.ecf.examples.remoteservices.hello.consumer/products/Hello Service Consumer (edef,generic).product

These start the host and consumer, respectively, using EDEF-based discovery (i.e. the xml file listed above in org.eclipse.ecf.remoteservices.hello.consumer.edef bundle above).

One the Hello Service Consumer (edef,generic).product is started, then to trigger the EDEF-file-based discovery, start the '''org.eclipse.ecf.remoteservices.hello.consumer.edef''' bundle from the OSGi console prompt:

'''osgi>start org.eclipse.ecf.remoteservices.hello.consumer.edef'''

this will trigger the consumer's reading/parsing of the EDEF file, and the EndpointDescription discovery, and remote service import.

==Writing/Creating EDEF xml files==

In ECF's remote service admin implementation, an [http://download.eclipse.org/rt/ecf/3.5Test/javadoc/org/eclipse/ecf/osgi/services/remoteserviceadmin/EndpointDescriptionWriter.html EndpointDescriptionWriter] class is available to allow EndpointDescriptions to be written...to disk or some other output stream.