[equinox-dev] Creating and Starting a BundleActivator when the framework

[Simon J Archer <sarcher@xxxxxxxxxx>]

It is my understanding that simply having
a BundleActivator class and a Bundle-Activator header in the MANIFEST.MF
is not enough to force the bundle's activator to be created and started
by Equinox when the framework is launched.

I have learned that adding Eclipse-LazyStart:
true to the MANIFEST.MF is the way
ensure that the bundle's activator is started when one of its classes is
first touched by another bundle.

But how am I to create a bundle that
has a BundleActivator that is created and started when the OSGi framework
is launched?  I am aware of the org.eclipse.ui.startup
extension point and accompanying IStartup
class, but I do not want to use that when my bundle is "pure model",
since they reside in an Eclipse UI plug-in.  I don't want to couple
my model to anything UI related.

I'm building plugins that will run in
the Eclipse IDE rather than pure OSGi bundles, so I'm using an "Eclipse
Application" launch configuration.  It is curious that only the
"Equinox OSGi Framework" launch configurations allow you to specify
the default start level for a bundle and whether it will start automatically
when the framework launches.

While I understand that the early creation
and starting of a bundle activator is considered a bad thing by many Eclipse
developers, it should still be possible and should not be this hard.

Thanks

Simon