Fragment dependency on other fragments

Question

I have a plugin which is the host of fragment A & B. I export a package using Export-Package header from fragment A. Hopefully I can import that package in fragment B using Import-Package header. But the PDE reports that the dependency is unresolved. Is it possible at all using this scenario ? The following post http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/238204/ confirms that it is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks & Regards,

Setya

Bohner

Answer 1

The scenario described is perfectly possible in runtime, however PDE is not aware of the dependency at build time. You need to add the header Eclipse-ExtensibleAPI: true to the host bundle of fragment A.

To reiterate, this header is only used at build time by PDE and is not an OSGi header.

Trigeminal

Isn't this somewhat of an abuse of fragments? I don't think fragments "should" export anything, since nothing else should have dependencies on them. Their existence in a system should not be relied upon by other bundles. I wholly admit I could be wrong, based on my limited understanding of what a fragment is supposed to be used for. – Eliza

No it's not, IMHO. Remember, other bundles don't have a dependency on the fragment, they have a dependency on the package. They shouldn't care which bundle the package comes from, or whether the package comes from a fragment. It's certainly possible for fragments to be abused but the OP didn't specify why he was using a fragment in this instance. – Trigeminal

I'm glad if it is in fact possible to do that. I'll try the header you suggested & will get back with the result. To complete my story, fragment A & B are needed only in development time since they exist only for testing purposes. Initially fragment A was a bundle, but because I had the same thought that, if possible, fragment B shouldn't depend on a bundle, then I convert the bundle into fragment A & faced the problem I posted. – Bohner

@user589207 I hit this problem a few months back and Neil is right, you do need it. There is a lot of history in eclipse about this. – Postmillennialism

I've added the header as Neil suggested. Now from fragment B, when I add 'Imported Packages' I can see packages exported by fragment A, but still after I add those packages, any classes from those packages that I use in fragment B are marked unresolvable. – Bohner

As workaround I have to add fragment A as project dependency of fragment B. – Bohner