A bundle in an application can declare a dependency on a library by using the SpringSource dm Server-specific Import-Library header. This header specifies a comma-separated list of library symbolic names and version ranges that determine which libraries are imported. By default a dependency on a library is mandatory but this can be controlled through use of the resolution directive in exactly the same way as it can with Import-Package.

Import-Library: org.springframework.spring;version="[2.5.4, 3.0)",
 org.aspectj;version="[1.6.0,1.6.0]";resolution:="optional"
            

This example Import-Library header declares a mandatory dependency on the Spring library at a version from 2.5.4 inclusive to 3.0 exclusive. It also declares an optional dependency on the AspectJ library at exactly 1.6.0.

A bundle in an application can declare a dependency on a bundle by using the SpringSource dm Server-specific Import-Bundle header. The header specifies a comma-separated list of bundle symbolic names, version ranges, and scope declarmations that determine which bundles are imported and the scope of their dependency. By default a dependency on a bundle is mandatory but this can be controlled through use of the resolution directive in exactly the same way as it can with Import-Package.

Import-Bundle: com.springsource.org.apache.commons.dbcp;version="[1.2.2.osgi, 1.2.2.osgi]"
           

This example Import-Bundle header declares a mandatory dependency on the Apache Commons DBCP bundle at exactly 1.2.2.osgi.

When working with a scoped application, such as a PAR file or a plan, you might run into a situation where one of the bundles in the application (call it bundleA) depends on another bundle (bundleB) that performs a runtime task (such as class generation) that a third bundle (bundleC) might need to know about, although bundleC does not explicitly depend on bundleB.

For example, Hibernate uses CGLIB (code generation library) at runtime to generate proxies for persistent classes. Assume that a domain bundle in your application uses Hibernate for its persistent objects, and thus its Import-Bundle manifest header includes the Hibernate bundle. Further assume that a separate Web bundle uses reflection in its data-binding code, and thus needs to reflect on the persistent classes generated by Hibernate at runtime. The Web bundle now has an indirect dependency on the Hibernate bundle because of these dynamically generated classes, although the Web bundle does not typically care about the details of how these classes are persisted. One way to solve this dependency problem is to explicitly add the Hibernate bundle to the Import-Bundle header of the Web bundle; however, this type of explicit-specified dependency breaks the modularity of the application and is not a programming best practice.

A better way to solve this problem is to specify that itself dynamically import the bundle (Hibernate in the example above) to all bundles in the application at runtime. You do this by adding the import-scope:=application directive to the Import-Bundle header of the bundle that has the direct dependency (the domain bundle in our example). At runtime, although the Web bundle does not explicitly import the Hibernate bundle, implicitly imports it and thus its classes are available to the Web bundle. This mechanism allows you to declare the dependencies you need to make your application run, without having to make changes to your application that might limit its flexibility.

The following example shows how to use the import-scope directive with the Import-Bundle header:

Import-Bundle: com.springsource.org.hibernate;version="[3.2.6.ga,3.2.6.ga]";import-scope:=application

You can also set the import-scope directive to the (default) value bundle; in this case, the scope of the bundle is just the bundle itself and thus does not perform any implicit importing into other bundles of the application.

Note that use of the import-scope:=application directive of the Import-Bundle header only makes sense when the bundle is part of a scoped application (PAR or plan); if the bundle is not part of a scoped application, then this directive has no effect.

Finally, because import-scope:=application implicitly adds a bundle import to each bundle of the PAR or plan, the impact of subsequently refreshing the imported bundle is, in general, broader than it would have been if you had not used import-scope:=application. This may well affect the performance of refresh.

Libraries are defined in a simple text file, typically with a .libd suffix. This file identifies the library and lists all of its constituent bundles. For example, the following is the library definition for Spring 2.5.4:

Library-SymbolicName: org.springframework.spring
Library-Version: 2.5.4
Library-Name: Spring Framework
Import-Bundle: org.springframework.core;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.beans;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.context;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.aop;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.web;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)", 
 org.springframework.web.servlet;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.jdbc;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.orm;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.transaction;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.context.support;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 org.springframework.aspects;version="[2.5.4,2.5.5)",
 com.springsource.org.aopalliance;version="1.0"
			    

The following table lists all of the headers that may be used in a library definition:

Rather than encouraging the packaging of all an application's dependencies within the application itself, SpringSource dm Server uses a local provisioning repository of bundles and libraries upon which an application can depend. When the SpringSource dm Server encounters an application with a particular dependency, it will automatically provide, from its provisioning repository, the appropriate bundle or library.

Making a dependency available for provisioning is simply a matter of copying it to the appropriate location in the dm Server's local provisioning repository. By default this is SERVER_HOME/repository/bundles/usr for bundles, and SERVER_HOME/repository/libraries/usr for libraries. A more detailed discussion of the provisioning repository can be found in the User Guide.