Importing Resources

To use a resource exported by another bundle or located on the file system, you need to get the Resource Provider service, and use its methods.

Overview

For getting the value of String properties, use some of the variants of the getString method of the Resource Provider service.

For getting the value of file URL properties, use some of the variants of the getURL method.

If you want to use a property with dynamic value, you need to specify the arguments defined in the property value on using the getString/getURL method.

If you want the same language and other locale settings to be used within the entire system, use the setLocale(java.util.Locale locale) method. After that, you can get all necessary resources without having to specify a locale.

This source example illustrates getting the Resource Provider service and using it to take the values of several properties.

package test.resource.usage;

import org.osgi.framework.BundleActivator;
import org.osgi.framework.BundleContext;
import org.osgi.framework.ServiceReference;
import com.prosyst.util.resprovider.ResourceProvider;
import java.util.Locale;

  . . .
  private ServiceReference refResourceProvider = null;
  private ResourceProvider resProvider = null;

  . . .      
    try {
      
      //Getting the Resource Provider                
      refResourceProvider = bc.getServiceReference(ResourceProvider.class.getName());
      if (refResourceProvider != null) {
                        
        resProvider = (ResourceProvider) bc.getService(refResourceProvider);

        //Setting the current locale so we don't have to specify it
        //each time we are getting a resource
        resProvider.setLocale(Locale.GERMAN);
        
        //Getting a String property
        String value = resProvider.getString(2);                        
        System.out.println("The value of the property with ID 2 is: " + value);

        //Getting a dynamic property
        String propWithArg = resProvider.getString("1",
                                           new Object[] {"d:\\my_files\\my_file.del"});
        System.out.println("The value of the property with ID 1 is " + propWithArg);
                                
      }

    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();                
    }
    . . .

There are two ways of specifying the resource types of interest for the importing bundle:

• As a special header in the bundle manifest – You can specify in advance all resources types consumed by your bundle by adding a special header to the manifest: the Resource-Type header. It must contain one or more resource types used by this bundle. Note that the order of listing the types is relevant. When the bundle requests a resource, the Resource Provider will start searching the resource types in the order specified in the value of the Resource-Type header, and will return the first value found.

For example, the Resource-Type header may look like this:

Resource-Type: ICQ.oven, system

• As an argument on resource requesting – If you have not specified the consumed resource types in the bundle manifest, you have to specify them with each type when you request a resource with the getString/getURL method of the Resource Provider service.