Importing an existing bundle into CRXDE Lite

[Sutty100]

I noticed today that its possible to create a bundle in CRXDE lite and edit java files it on the author/publisher. We have existing bundles that we deploy to the server via package manager as jars which we edit in eclipse then build via maven. This means if we need to make code changes in anything other than the jsp's we have to do a full code deploy which requires change requests and lots of process!

So I was wondering is it possible to somehow import the bundles we already have running on the author into CRXDE Lite? Alternatively how can we convert the jars we upload so that we can edit them in CRXDE Lite? We would want to continue using Eclipse for development but then any quick changes could be done in CRXDE Lite on the author/publisher.

[smacdonald2008 · Accepted solution]

"how can we convert the jars we upload so that we can edit them in CRXDE Lite"

You cannot edit JARs in CRXDE Lite. You can edit JSPs that are part of a CQ app in CRXDE Lite. But JARs run in OSGi bundles deployed in the OSGi service container and cannot be modified in CRXDE lite.

When you want to update a JAR running in an OSGi - ie - you add a new method on a class that you want to call from a JSP and display the data. You can re-build the OSGi bundle and redeploy it using Felix console.  Then you can package the app with the updated OSGi using Package Manager and deploy to other CQ servers. 

For a good discussion on using Package Manager to package CQ apps into a package -- see: 
http://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/packaging-cq-applications-contain-osgi.html