Dimitar Valtchev

Pavlin Dobrev

Today’s software projects are big and complex and usually developed by collaborative teams. In order to ensure manageability, common design and reusable code the developers that write a production code must follow various company standards. Normally there is also a guidance that defines the common Eclipse environment. This common environment is usually not static and can evolve even during the lifecycle of a single project – new tools (Eclipse plug-ins) may have to be added to the environment or existing ones have to be upgraded with newer version, some configuration settings may need to be changed, etc. Applying those changes manually on every developer’s seat increases the risk of human errors, increases the latency of applying the changes and thus leads to inconsistencies between the configurations of developer environments.

Starting from OSGi Service Platform Release 3 Specification OSGi Alliance pays attention on the Remote Management Architecture and has defined some basic principles. The Eclipse core is based on a Framework compliant with OSGi Release 4 Specification. Therefore it must be possible to use a standard OSGi Management System for the remote management of Eclipse IDEs.

This talk present main problems and solutions in the area of remote monitoring and management. Some topics which will be addressed are:

• Installing new plug-ins
• Resolving component dependencies
• Updating components on the fly
• Configuration of the components
• Mass deployment
• Limitations of the current Eclipse update strategy and possibilities for improvements

The talk will include live demo for managing of Eclipse IDEs by using ProSyst's mPrower Remote Manager – a powerful and efficient platform for remote management of networks composed of OSGi-compliant service gateways.

DIMITAR VALTCHEV is Chief Technology Officer of ProSyst Software which offers several Eclipse based products. His main interests are in the fields of embedded systems, device management, and distributed computing. Currently Dimitar is involved in numerous residential, automotive and mobile projects using the OSGi technology.

PAVLIN DOBREV is Research and Development Manager of ProSyst Labs which develops OSGi and Eclipse based products. He is responsible for various research and customer projects and has extensive experience in the latest Java technologies, as well as OSGi and embedded system technologies, and shares his experience as an active participant in the OSGi, JCP and other technical standards groups.