The document provides an overview of modularity concepts and challenges for large enterprises with complex codebases. It then evaluates several modularity solutions, including OSGi, Maven, Jigsaw, and JBoss Modules, based on criteria like how well they can hide internals, enforce modularity, assemble applications, handle class versioning, and support migration. OSGi receives high marks for strongly enforcing modularity but lower marks for integration of tools and ease of migration. Maven is familiar to most developers but is not designed as a true modularity framework.

1. Calling All Modularity Solutions:
A Comparative Study from eBay
JavaOne 2011
Sangjin Lee, Tony Ng
eBay Inc.

2. Agenda
• What is modularity?
• Why modularity?
• Evaluation criteria
• Scorecard
• Summary
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3. What is modularity?
Dictionary says...
modular: employing or involving a module or modules as the basis of design
or construction: modular housing units.
Then what is a “module”?
module: each of a set of standardized parts or independent units that can be
used to construct a more complex structure, such as an item of furniture or a
building.
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4. What is Modularity?
According to Wikipedia*:
modular design: an approach that subdivides a system into smaller parts
(modules) that can be independently created and then used in different
systems to drive multiple functionalities.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_design
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5. Key modularity concepts for software
• Building blocks
• Re-use
• Granularity
• Dependencies
• Encapsulation
• Composition
• Versioning
Source: http://techdistrict.kirkk.com/2010/04/22/granularity-architectures-nemesis/
Author: Kirk Knoernschild
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6. Challenges for large enterprises
• Some stats on the eBay code base
– ~ 44 million of lines of code and growing
– Hundreds of thousands of classes
– Tens of thousands of packages
– ~ 4,000+ jars
• We have too many dependencies and tight coupling in our code
– Everyone sees everyone else
– Everyone affects everyone else
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7. Challenges for large enterprises
• Developer productivity/agility suffers as the knowledge goes down
– Changes ripple throughout the system
– Fallouts from changes/features are difficult to resolve
– Developers slow down and become risk averse
– Everyone affects everyone else: invites even more dependencies
knowledge complexity
code size
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8. Our goals with modularity efforts
• Tame complexity
• Organize our code base in loose coupling fashion
– Coarse-grained modules: number matters!
– Declarative coupling contract
– Ability to hide internals
• Establish clear code ownership, boundaries and dependencies
• Allow different components (and teams) evolve at different speeds
• Increase development agility
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9. Considerations on any modularity solutions
• Scalability: enterprise software tends to be large scale
• We need to consider a large group of developers with varying skill
levels
• End-to-end development lifecycle is crucial
• Conversion/migration of existing code base is crucial
– We rarely start from vacuum
– We want to move over and modularize bulk of existing code
– It is imperative that we chart a realistic migration course that can be
achieved within a reasonable amount of time
– We cannot afford disruption to business meanwhile: “change parts
while the car is running”
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10. Evaluation criteria
• Modularity concerns
– Hide internals (“reduce the surface area”)
– Enforce modularity
– Provision/assemble application easily
– Isolate and run two versions of the same class
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11. Evaluation criteria
• End-to-end development lifecycle: IDE, command line build,
repository, server runtime, etc.
– Complete and mature tooling
– Integration and fidelity of tools across phases
pull/push SCM pull
Command line
IDE
build (CI)
consume publish/consume
Deployment Server runtime
Repository
packaging deploy
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12. Evaluation criteria
• Migration concerns
– Ease of conversion
– Learning curve
• Adoption: user communities and knowledge
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13. Evaluation candidates
• OSGi
• Maven
• Jigsaw
• JBoss modules
Disclaimer: this is not a comprehensive discussion of these technologies. We will
focus only on modularity aspects and it will not be an exhaustive evaluation.
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14. OSGi
• Observations
– “The only game in town” (?)
– Strong modularity framework
– Focuses more on runtime than build time
– “All or nothing”: everything needs to be pretty much in an OSGi bundle
– Bundles and services are dynamic at runtime
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15. OSGi
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF:
Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
Bundle-SymbolicName: org.foo.bar
Bundle-Version: 1.2.1
Import-Package: org.foo.other;version=“[1.1,2.0)”,
javax.xml.parsers
Export-Package: org.foo.bar;version=“1.2.3”,
org.foo.bar.sub;uses=“org.foo.bar”;version=“1.2.1”
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16. OSGi
• Pros
– Enforces modularity strongly: it will let you know if you violate it
– Mature and comprehensive: covers pretty much all use cases regarding
modularity
– Open standard
– Services: the ultimate decoupling force
– Can run two versions of the same class easily
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17. OSGi
• Cons
– Can run two versions of the same class easily, and run into trouble
– Some problems are nasty to troubleshoot (uses conflict anyone?)
– Still not many well-integrated tools across all phases: impedance
mismatches
– Compared to strong runtime model, build side story is weak
– Migration can be quite painful
– Learning curve is still fairly steep
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18. OSGi
• Hide internals: A
– Declarative way to exclude module-private
packages
– It’s strictly enforced: won’t resolve if it is
violated
• Enforce modularity: A
– Requirements and capabilities declared in the
manifest are strongly enforced: runtime will
fail if violated
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19. OSGi
• Assemble application easily: A
– Supported through subsystem provisioning (Karaf features, OSGi
application model, etc.)
– Works quite well because the underlying dependency metadata is high
quality
• Run two versions of the same class: B+
– Works great if consumers are well-separated
– Supports version range dependencies
– However, has a chance of introducing nasty problems if one is not
careful: uses conflicts, accidental wiring, and ClassCastExceptions
– Be careful what you wish for
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20. OSGi
• Complete and mature tooling: B+
– IDE: PDE, bndtools, sigil, ...
– Command line build: maven + bundle plug-in, ant, tycho, ...
– Repository: OBR, target platform, maven repository
• Integration of tools: D
– Tools at different phases do not integrate too well
– Left to deal with a lot of little impedance mismatches
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21. OSGi
• Ease of migration: D
– Binaries can be “wrapped” into OSGi bundles
– All bad practices must be addressed before they can be used, however:
split packages, Class.forName, thread context classloader, etc.
– Not all third-party libraries are available as OSGi bundles
– Need to take a continuous refactoring approach
• Learning curve: C
– The learning curve is fairly steep mainly because modularity is not
always easy to master
– Dynamic behavior of bundles/services introduces complexity
• Adoption: B-
– Fairly wide adoption, but less so in enterprise applications
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22. OSGi: scorecard
Hide internals A
Enforce modularity A
Assemble application easily A
Run two versions of the same class B+
Complete and mature tooling B+
Integration of tools D
Ease of migration D
Learning curve C
Adoption B-
Overall B-
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23. Maven
• Observations
– Normally not thought of as a “modularity solution”
– But has some characteristics of modularity through dependency
management
– More of a build time solution than runtime
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24. Maven
pom.xml:
<?xml version=“1.0”?>
<project>
<groupId>org.foo</groupId>
<artifactId>bar</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<dependencies>
<groupId>org.foo</groupId>
<artifactId>other</artifactId>
<version>1.1.0</version>
</dependencies>
</project>
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25. Maven
• Pros
– Most developers are already familiar with maven
– Most third-party libraries are already available as maven artifacts
– Comes with a fairly comprehensive and mature tooling ecosystem
– You can extend the behavior easily with your own plug-ins
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26. Maven
• Cons: it’s not really meant as a modularity framework
– It does not enforce modularity (either at build time or runtime)
– You cannot hide internals
– At runtime, the global classpath still rules
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27. Maven
• Hide internals: F
– Nothing there
– Still the global classpath rules
• Enforce modularity: D-
– More of a build time concern than runtime
– No enforcement of dependencies: transitive build classpath!
– Not even an option of strict dependency build
– There is a dependency plugin that analyzes your dependencies
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28. Maven
• Assemble application easily: B
– Definitely possible
– But it’s only as good as your POM dependencies
• Run two versions of the same class: F
– Nothing there
– Still the global classpath rules
– When there are version collisions, maven picks one for you J
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29. Maven
• Complete and mature tooling: A
– Command line build, IDE (m2eclipse), and maven repo
• Integration of tools: A
• Ease of migration: B+
– Boils down to creating POMs for existing non-maven projects
– Third-party libs are pretty much maven artifacts these days
• Learning curve: B
– Most developers are already familiar with maven
– Maven has its own quirks
• Adoption: A
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30. Maven: scorecard
Hide internals F
Enforce modularity D-
Assemble application easily B
Run two versions of the same class F
Complete and mature tooling A
Integration of tools A
Ease of migration B+
Learning curve B
Adoption A
Overall C+
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31. Project Jigsaw overview
• Part of JDK 8
• JSR 277, JSR 294
• Key Features
– Static resolution
– Versioning
– Optional modules
– Permits
– Virtual modules
– Native packaging
– Module-private accessibility at language level
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32. Jigsaw: module declaration (module-info)
• Source and binary form
module a.b @ 1.0 {
requires c.d @ [2.0,3.0); // dependencies
export e.f.*; // package exported
provide g.h @ 4.0; // virtual provider modules
permit i.j; // module friendship
class k.l; // main class
}
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33. Jigsaw
• Pros
– Native support in JDK (e.g. javac) and language
– Covers build time, install-time, and runtime
– Static resolution may provide optimization & simplicity
• Cons
– Not ready to be used yet
– Less mature, lesser known
– Primary focus is to modularize JDK (but open to others)
– Pace has been slow
– Static resolution means less flexibility at runtime
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34. Jigsaw
• Hide internals: A
• Enforce modularity: A
• Easy app provisioning & creation: A
• Run two versions of the same class: B
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35. Jigsaw
• Complete and mature tooling: F
• Integration of tools: F
– Only OpenJDK tools support right now
• Migration concerns: B-
– Extra effort would be given to minimize migration pain since the plan
is to modularize JDK
– Some unknown on interoperability with OSGi
• Learning curve: B
– Not much info yet and still evolving (so far does not look too
complicated)
• Adoption: F
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36. Jigsaw: scorecard
Hide internals A
Enforce modularity A
Assemble application easily A
Run two versions of the same class B
Complete and mature tooling F
Integration of tools F
Ease of migration B-
Learning curve B
Adoption F
Overall C
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37. JBoss modules
• Basis for JBoss OSGi & app server
• No container required
• Features
– Exact version match only
– Transitive and non-transitive dependencies
– Optional dependencies
– Import/export filters
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38. JBoss modules: module declaration
<module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.0" name="my.module">
<main-class name="my.module.Main"/>
<resources>
<resource-root path="mymodule.jar"/>
</resources>
<dependencies>
<module name="a.b"/>
<module name="c.d" slot="1.3.0"/>
<!-- Optional dependencies -->
<module name="e.f" optional="true"/>
</dependencies>
</module>
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39. JBoss modules
• Pros
– Very simple
– Fast static resolution
– Lightweight (jboss-modules.jar ~240k)
• Cons
– Lacks (public) tools: IDE, command line builds, ...
– Lacks advanced features
– No version ranges: exact match only
– Non-standards based
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40. JBoss modules
• Hide internals: A
– Can constrain exported packages easily
• Enforce modularity: A
• Easy app provisioning & creation: B
– It is possible by way of resolving and starting the first module
– It is unknown if there is a formal provisioning concept or framework/
library publicly available
• Run two versions of the same class: C
– No version ranges: exact match only
– Has potential to introduce multiple versions unintentionally
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41. JBoss modules
• Complete and mature tooling: F
• Integration of tools: F
• Migration concerns: D
– Many of the OSGi bad practices would be issues with JBoss modules too
• Learning curve: B
– Relatively simple to learn
• Adoption: D-
– Little adoption outside JBoss itself?
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42. JBoss modules: scorecard
Hide internals A
Enforce modularity A
Assemble application easily B
Run two versions of the same class C
Complete and mature tooling F
Integration of tools F
Ease of migration D
Learning curve B
Adoption D-
Overall C-
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43. Scorecard
OSGi Maven Jigsaw JBoss
modules
Hide internals A F A A
Enforce modularity A D- A A
Assemble application easily A B A B
Run two versions of the same class B+ F B C
Complete and mature tooling B+ A F F
Integration of tools D A F F
Ease of migration D B+ B- D
Learning curve C B B B
Adoption B- A F D-
Overall B- C+ C C-
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44. Summary
• OSGi is the only true modularity solution that is “ready” now
• OSGi has challenges in migration and learning curve
• Dearth of integrated tooling is an issue with OSGi
• Maven does not offer much in the way of modularity: no
enforcement
• Jigsaw will introduce language level modularity support
• Will there be interoperability between Jigsaw and OSGi?
• JBoss modules shares strong modularity traits with OSGi
• JBoss modules does not offer much tooling
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45. Thank you!
Sangjin Lee: sangjin.lee@ebay.com, twitter @sjlee
Tony Ng: tonyng@ebay.com
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