Using OSGi to explain the difference between Factory and Broker pattern

After some heated discussions about OSGi on The Server Side decided to put together a series of articles on the topic. Quite rightly I think, Peter Kriens has the honour of getting the series started. His article on developing modular applications provides one of the clearest explanations of the differences between the Factory and Broker pattern. Put simply, the Factory must know implementation details of what it is creating, while the Broker does not, since it does not really create anything.

Peter’s explanation makes it very clear why Factory is good, but just not good enough, for enterprise applications. I hope he contributes more on the series.