Developing apps on the OpenDaylight controller¶

This section provides the information required to develop apps on an OpenDaylight controller. Apps can be developed either within the controller using a Model-Driven SAL (MD-SAL) archetype or via an external app using the RESTCONF API to communicate with the controller.

Overview¶

This section starts app development within an OpenDaylight controller.

Perform the following steps to develop an app:

Create a local repository for the code using a simple build process.
Start the OpenDaylight controller.
Test a simple remote procedure call (RPC) that was created based on the principle of hello world.

Prerequisites¶

The following are the prerequisites for app creation:

A development environment with the following setup and working correctly from the shell:
- Maven 3.8.3 or later
- Java 11-compliant JDK
- An appropriate Maven settings.xml file. One way to get the default OpenDaylight settings.xml file is:
```
cp -n ~/.m2/settings.xml{,.orig}
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opendaylight/odlparent/master/settings.xml > ~/.m2/settings.xml
```

Note

For Linux or Mac OS X development operating systems, the default local repository is ~/.m2/repository. For other platforms, the default local repository location varies.

Building an Example module¶

Perform the following steps to develop an app:

Create an Example project using Maven and an archetype called the opendaylight-startup-archetype. For first time downloads, this project will take some time to pull all the code from the remote repository.
```
mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.opendaylight.archetypes \
    -DarchetypeArtifactId=opendaylight-startup-archetype \
    -DarchetypeCatalog=remote -DarchetypeVersion=<VERSION>
```
Note

The correct VERSION in the startup-archetype generation command depends on the desired Simultaneous Release, but this is valid only until the Boron release (version 1.2.2).

Archetype versions :widths: auto :header-rows: 1¶

OpenDaylight Simultaneous Release

opendaylight-startup-archetype version

Boron Development

1.2.2-SNAPSHOT

Archetype versions :widths: auto :header-rows: 1¶
OpenDaylight Simultaneous Release	`opendaylight-startup-archetype` version
Boron Development	1.2.2-SNAPSHOT

Update the properties values. Ensure that the values for the groupId and the artifactId are in lower case.

Define value for property 'groupId': org.opendaylight.example
Define value for property 'artifactId': example
[INFO] Using property: version = 0.1.0-SNAPSHOT
Define value for property 'package' org.opendaylight.example: :
Define value for property 'classPrefix' Example: :
Define value for property 'copyright': Copyright (c) 2021 Yoyodyne, Inc.
[INFO] Using property: copyrightYear = 2021

Accept the default value of classPrefix, that is: (${artifactId.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()}${artifactId.substring(1)}). The classPrefix creates a Java Class Prefix by capitalizing the first character of the artifactId.

Note

This will create a directory with the name given to artifactId in the above dialog, with the following contents.
```
.gitreview
api/
artifacts/
cli/
features/
impl/
it/
karaf/
pom.xml
src/
```
Build the example project.

Note

Build time varies depending on the development machine specification. Ensure that you are in the project’s root directory (example/,) and then issue the the following build command.
```
mvn clean install
```

Initialize the example project.

cd karaf/target/assembly/bin
ls
./karaf

Wait for the Karaf CLI to appear. Wait for OpenDaylight to fully load all components. This can take a minute or two after the prompt appears. Check the CPU on the dev machine, specifically the Java process to see when it slows down.
```
opendaylight-user@root>
```
Verify if the “example” module is built and search for the log entry that includes the entry ExampleProvider Session Initiated.
```
log:display | grep Example
```
Enter the following command to shutdown OpenDaylight through the console:
```
shutdown -f
```

Defining a simple HelloWorld RPC¶

Build a hello example from the Maven archetype opendaylight-startup-archetype, same as what was done in the previous steps.
View the entry point to understand the origins of the log line. The entry point starts in the ./impl project:
```
impl/src/main/java/org/opendaylight/hello/impl/HelloProvider.java
```

Add any new content that you are doing in your implementation by using the HelloProvider.init method. It is analogous to an Activator.

/**
 * Method called when the blueprint container is created.
 */
public void init() {
    LOG.info("HelloProvider Session Initiated");
}

Add a simple HelloWorld RPC API¶

Navigate to api/src/main/yang.
```
cd api/src/main/yang/
```

Edit the hello.yang file. In the following example, we are adding the code in a YANG module to define the hello-world RPC:

module hello {
    yang-version 1.1;
    namespace "urn:opendaylight:params:xml:ns:yang:hello";
    prefix "hello";

    revision "2021-03-21" {
        description "Initial revision of hello model";
    }

    rpc hello-world {
        input {
            leaf name {
                type string;
            }
        }
        output {
            leaf greeting {
                type string;
            }
        }
    }
}

Return to the hello/api directory. Do the following to build the API:
```
cd ../../../
mvn clean install
```

Implement the HelloWorld RPC API¶

Define the HelloService that was invoked through the hello-world API.

cd ../impl/src/main/java/org/opendaylight/hello/impl/

The HelloProvider.java file is in the current directory. Register the RPC that you created in the hello.yang file in the HelloProvider.java file. You can either edit the HelloProvider.java to match what is below or simply replace it with the code below.

/*
 * Copyright © 2021 Copyright (c) 2021 Yoyodyne, Inc. and others.  All rights reserved.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution,
 * and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 */
package org.opendaylight.hello.impl;

import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
import org.opendaylight.mdsal.binding.api.DataBroker;
import org.opendaylight.yang.gen.v1.urn.opendaylight.params.xml.ns.yang.hello.rev210321.HelloService;
import org.opendaylight.yang.gen.v1.urn.opendaylight.params.xml.ns.yang.hello.rev210321.HelloWorldInput;
import org.opendaylight.yang.gen.v1.urn.opendaylight.params.xml.ns.yang.hello.rev210321.HelloWorldOutput;
import org.opendaylight.yang.gen.v1.urn.opendaylight.params.xml.ns.yang.hello.rev210321.HelloWorldOutputBuilder;
import org.opendaylight.yangtools.yang.common.RpcResult;
import org.opendaylight.yangtools.yang.common.RpcResultBuilder;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class HelloProvider implements HelloService {

    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(HelloProvider.class);

    private final DataBroker dataBroker;

    public HelloProvider(final DataBroker dataBroker) {
        this.dataBroker = dataBroker;
    }

    @Override
    public ListenableFuture<RpcResult<HelloWorldOutput>> helloWorld(HelloWorldInput input) {
        HelloWorldOutputBuilder helloBuilder = new HelloWorldOutputBuilder();
        helloBuilder.setGreeting("Hello " + input.getName());
        return RpcResultBuilder.success(helloBuilder.build()).buildFuture();
    }

    /**
     * Method called when the blueprint container is created.
     */
    public void init() {
        LOG.info("HelloProvider Session Initiated");
    }

    /**
     * Method called when the blueprint container is destroyed.
     */
    public void close() {
        LOG.info("HelloProvider Closed");
    }
}

Update Blueprint XML file.

cd ../../../../../resources/OSGI-INF/blueprint/

You can either edit the impl-blueprint.xml to match what is below or simply replace it with the XML below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- vi: set et smarttab sw=4 tabstop=4: -->
<!--
Copyright © 2021 Copyright (c) 2021 Yoyodyne, Inc. and others. All rights reserved.

This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution,
and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
-->
<blueprint xmlns="http://www.osgi.org/xmlns/blueprint/v1.0.0"
  xmlns:odl="http://opendaylight.org/xmlns/blueprint/v1.0.0"
  odl:use-default-for-reference-types="true">

  <reference id="dataBroker"
    interface="org.opendaylight.mdsal.binding.api.DataBroker"
    odl:type="default" />

  <bean id="provider"
    class="org.opendaylight.hello.impl.HelloProvider"
    init-method="init" destroy-method="close">
    <argument ref="dataBroker" />
  </bean>

  <odl:rpc-implementation ref="provider"/>

</blueprint>

Optionally, users can build the Java classes that will register the new RPC. This is useful to test the edits that were made to HelloProvider.java.
```
cd ../../../../../
mvn clean install
```
Return to the top level directory
```
cd ../
```
Build the entire hello again. This will pickup the new changes, and then build them into the project:
```
mvn clean install
```

Execute the hello project for the first time¶

Run karaf
```
cd karaf/target/assembly/bin
./karaf
```
Wait for the project to load completely. Then view the log to see the loaded Hello Module:
```
log:display | grep Hello
```

Test the hello-world RPC via REST¶

There are a lot of ways to test a RPC. The following are a few examples.

Using the API Explorer through HTTP
Using a browser REST client

Using the API Explorer through HTTP¶

Navigate to openapi UI with your web browser.

Note

In the URL link for openapi UI, change localhost to the IP/Host name to reflect your development machine’s network address.
Enter the username and password. By default the credentials are admin/admin.
Select
```
hello
```

Select

POST /rests/operations/hello:hello-world

Click on the Try it out button.

Provide the required request input.

{
  "input": {
    "name": "Your Name"
  }
}

Select application/json for Media type in the Responses section.
Click the Execute button.

In the response body you should see

{
  "hello:output": {
    "greeting": "Hello Your Name"
  }
}

Using a browser REST client¶

Next, use a browser to POST a REST client request. For example, use the following information in the Firefox plugin:

RESTClient https://github.com/chao/RESTClient

POST: http://localhost:8181/rests/operations/hello:hello-world

Header:

Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic admin admin

Body:

{
  "input": {
    "name": "Your Name"
  }
}

In the response body you should see:

{
  "hello:output": {
    "greeting": "Hello Your Name"
  }
}

Troubleshooting¶

If you get a response code 500 while attempting to POST /rests/operations/hello:hello-world, check the file: impl/src/main/resources/OSGI-INF/blueprint/impl-blueprint.xml and make sure the following element is specified for <blueprint>.

<odl:rpc-implementation ref="provider"/>