It seems to me that this press release is lacking in explanation. For example, could you explain why you are removing the generator...

@jlerbsc

It seems to me that this press release is lacking in explanation. For example, could you explain why you are removing the generator...

• The purpose of BndGenerator was to generate the bnd.bnd file: a file used by the BND plugin to generate the OSGi MANIFEST.MF
• The bnd.bnd file is not needed anymore because its now defined concisely in the parent pom.xml file.

<configuration>
    <!--
        Bundle-SymbolicName is derived from groupId + artifactId. OSGi permits
        dashes here, so this preserves names like
        `com.github.javaparser.javaparser-core` for OSGi consumers.
    
        Automatic-Module-Name uses ${jpms.moduleName} because JPMS module names
        disallow dashes — each module sets this property to a dot-separated,
        dash-free identifier.
    -->
    <bnd><![CDATA[
        Bundle-SymbolicName: ${project.groupId}.${project.artifactId}
        Automatic-Module-Name: ${jpms.moduleName}
        -exportcontents: ${osgi.export}
        -nodefaultversion: true
        Bundle-DocURL: https://javaparser.org
    ]]></bnd>
</configuration>

• Previously, the BND plugin required packages to be declared explicitly in the -exportcontents: section, but it now allows for wildcards, which is defined as a property here. OSGi wildcards are sometimes are frowned upon because you are possibly exporting implementation classes users do not need. However, BndGenerator does not seem to filter out any packages, so this is functionally equivalent to what it was before.
• In the generated MANIFEST.MF, the packages are declared explicitly based on the pattern passed
• Even when configuration of explicit exports are needed, we could just define them via the osgi.export maven property with syntax similar to how the MANIFEST.MF is defined above, which I believe is simpler that the BndGenerator approach

Why are you including the test projects in this PR? What added value do these projects bring to OSGi?

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 58.711%. Comparing base (d75a888) to head (b4e443b).
⚠️ Report is 1 commits behind head on master.

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##              master     #5011   +/-   ##
===========================================
  Coverage     58.711%   58.711%           
  Complexity      2592      2592           
===========================================
  Files            702       702           
  Lines          40217     40217           
  Branches        7327      7327           
===========================================
  Hits           23612     23612           
  Misses         13634     13634           
  Partials        2971      2971           

Why are you including the test projects in this PR? What added value do these projects bring to OSGi?

@jlerbsc

There is no added value. I included them because it reduces the added build complexity of this PR with a negligible performance hit to the build. If a new module is added to this project, the only OSGi configuration needed would be to define jpms.moduleName without dashes. We could even define a default jpms.moduleName as ${project.groupId}.${project.artifactId} in the parent to avoid this.

I have commited a fix (ced4bfe) regarding this. I had to add configurations per deployable module. Any new module would also need this.

Could you please squash your commits to make the PR easier to read? Thank you.

Could you please squash your commits to make the PR easier to read? Thank you.

@jlerbsc Done

"Future work (not in this PR)
P2 repository / Eclipse RCP (Equinox) support would require either consumers building from source or hosting an Eclipse update site — happy to open a separate issue if there's interest."

There is no need to submit this pull request, as JP is not intended to provide features for other projects. However, you could create a separate project specifically designed to provide these user-friendly features.

Thank you for this PR.