If you use Maven you probably already know that Sun jars were always a problem because their license didn’t allow redistribution. Now with the effort from the Glassfish project Sun is releasing a lot of components under the open source CDDL license. It allows the redistribution so we have started syncing the Maven repository at Java.net managed by the Sun guys, for now only the com.sun.* and javax.* groups and only the official releases.
Today is release day, two things are out, a new version of the Better Builds with Maven book with the errata found to date fixed, and Maestro, open source end-to-end build solution based upon Apache Maven and Continuum that’s
easy to use, fast, and pre-configured for use with a high performance
repository, with commercial support available from Mergere. And yes, both the book and Maestro are free (as in free beer).
Announcements follow for more detail:
Mergere is pleased to announce the release of Better Builds with Maven 1.0.1, the How-to Guide for Apache Maven.
The book covers:
This latest release corrects all errata found to date. Thanks to everyone that has contributed feedback since the initial release!
Better Builds with Maven is available free of charge (after registering) from http://library.mergere.com/.
Mergere is pleased to announce the release of Maestro 1.0.1, an end-to-end build solution based upon Apache Maven and Continuum that’s easy to use, fast, and pre-configured for use with a high performance repository.
Maestro includes:
Maestro is free to download and use (after registering) from http://www.mergere.com/products_developers.jsp.
There is no need to re-register if you have previously downloaded from Mergere.
Support is also available from Mergere. For more information, see http://www.mergere.com/services_core.jsp.
If you happen to be in Paris the 11th, from 8:30 to 12:30 there’s a free conference, Maven Day, with three core developers from Maven, Jason van Zyl, Vincent Massol and Emmanuel Venisse.
74/80 rue Roque de Fillol
Puteaux
Mo La D�fense – Esplanade
There’s a page where you can find more Maven events.
As Ben Alex is travelling around Europe (lucky you!) I had the task of releasing the bug fix release 1.0.1, as many people were waiting for SEC-281, due to Acegi 1.0.0 requiring Spring 2.x and breaking under 1.2.x.
One of the differencies with previous releases is that this one does not provide signed jars, instead PGP signatures have been provided.
Check the detailed changelog. This release is a drop in replacement, so no upgrade steps are required.
It won’t be available through the normal Sourceforge download page (for now), the preferred method is through the Maven repository which contains the jars, javadocs and sources, with corresponding signatures.
The Acegi repository is mirrored to the central ibiblio repository, so you don’t need any extra configuration in your project.
You can still get the binary zip distribution and sources.
The Acegi web site provides additional information on Acegi Security’s features and access to online documentation.
And now back to the World Cup and the Formula 1 race 😉
Many of the Maven and Spring users out there have complained for looooong time about not having the latest Spring releases in the Maven repository at iBiblio, something that I personally solved every time there was a new release of Spring copying the jars in the repo, ensuring also that they are the official releases as it’s something used for a lot of people.
Then with Maven 2 the problem started to be the poms not being there, so as I like Spring I came with a parallel Maven 2 build that could be added to Spring CVS so we could build it with Maven 2 and thus having the right poms for Spring users. You can find this conversion in the Better Builds with Maven book, Ant to Maven migration chapter. The problem is that as new features are added into Spring, dependencies are updated,… things get out of sync pretty fast. So I kindly requested the Spring guys to add the poms to their CVS (as both Ant and Maven build can coexist) and let the community help improve them. The jira issue is SPR-1484, you can find there the latest poms i’ve been working with, and at spring/lib/readme.txt you can get the versions of dependencies used (although docs are not always up to date). If you want Spring to support the Maven 2 poms and make sure they are always up to date in sync with the releases you can vote for the issue SPR-1484.
Remember that we have now more than 11000 jars in the repo + more than 1500 project sources + more than 700 javadocs! keep doing this great job submitting them!
Back from JavaOne I realised that have some pretty funny media. I’ll start a series of podcasts, starting with Rich (no names for protect 😉 ), about him around 20 years ago when he went to Spain for university and tried to ask his roommates for drawers to put his stuff. Listen to Rich in Spain. The quality of the sound is not too good as we were in a bar (as all nights).
It was a very nice week in San Francisco. It was not due to the sessions because I didn’t went to any 😉 but it was really interesting meeting people, some already well known from mailings and new ones.
From the second group it was really good to see how more and more people use Maven, and those that still don’t use it know a lot about it. The reasons not to use it also moved from other years from “my build is fine with ant” or “I don’t like the standards that Maven imposes” to “it’s something we want to do but still didn’t have the time”. The good news is that now Mergere is offering Maestro, a user friendly bundle with Maven, Continuum, a sample application, with user documentation, the “Better Builds with Maven” book, a nice installer and using a faster repository, which many people would appreciate, as the fact that everything is completely free and open source (which is not always the same).
From the first group aka “the usual suspects”, I’d like to point out that after some drinks geeks start being more talkative ;). The ones that deserve special mention for their abilities with the glass are Rob Harrop (Spring), Gregor Hohpe (Google), Dan Diephouse (XFire) aka seXFire, Hani (The Bile Blog), and the ever present David Blevins (Geronimo), Dain Sundstrom (Geronimo) , James Strachan (LogicBlaze), Hiram Chirino (LogicBlaze),… I’m sure I forget people but I have an excuse… I was trying to keep up with them!
Also wednesday I went to see the Champions Leage final, playing Barcelona-Arsenal. It was a lot of fun watching it with the guys as I was the only spaniard around against a bunch of britons, but of course at the end we won 2-1. A really good game.
If you happen to be in San Francisco and are interested in Maven you should check this out, there will be a Maven JUG hosted by Mergere at the W hotel, Tuesday at 7:30. You should register to make sure there’s enough space for everybody.
The official announcement follows:
Please join Mergere for a Java Users Group (JUG) hosted by our parent company, Simula Labs, with IBM and IONA Technologies.
This is your opportunity to hear presentations from and meet with the teams behind some of the most innovative and popular Apache open source projects today.
See how the Mergere Maestro distribution, based on Apache Maven and Continuum, provides an agile platform to build, test and manage SOA run-times, like IONA Technnologies~ Celtix. Also learn how LogicBlaze FUSE for WAS CE is an ideal middleware platform for enterprise Service-oriented Architecture (SOA).
PLUS, for early JavaOne attendees ~ see Maven founder and Chief Architect of Mergere, Jason van Zyl, speak a the closing keynote of Netbeans Day on Monday, May 15. For more information on this event, please go to: http://www.netbeans.org/community/articles/javaone/2006/nb-day.html
What: Java Users Group
When: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Where: The W Hotel, San Francisco
181 3rd Street
San Francisco, California 94103
(415) 777-5300
Great Room 1&2
Who: Speakers from Mergere, Simula, LogicBlaze, IBM and Iona Technologies
FREE beverages and appetizers will be served
Limited space is available ~ click the URL below to REGISTER NOW for Mergere’s JUG!
http://www.mergere.com/common/reg.jsp?form_source=m-jug_javaone2006&form_landing=m-jug_email
Kohsuke has uploaded Activation 1.1 and JavaMail 1.4 to the Maven 1 repository in java.net.
I uploaded them to the Maven 2 repo at iBiblio, improving the poms: activation and javamail, if you want to use them you can add one of the following dependencies to your pom. You only need one because javamail depends on activation and brings it in.
<dependency> <groupid>javax.activation</groupid> <artifactid>activation</artifactid> <version>1.1</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupid>javax.mail</groupid> <artifactid>mail</artifactid> <version>1.4</version> </dependency>
Make sure your project uses these versions so your users don’t need to download the jars from Sun.
Colin Sampaleanu (Spring Framework, Interface21) brought again the topic about how to handle optional dependencies in Maven, what’s the best way, how to apply it,… You can read the thread How are people getting around the lack of custom scopes?. If you are too lazy and don’t want to reason you can skip to the end where you can find the solution for that problem under Maven 2.
The example he provides is Spring Webflow, currently packaged completely in an only jar, with some core dependencies always needed, some only needed when used with Spring MVC, some only with JSF, and some only with Struts.
While the idea of packaging a bunch of classes in one jar can be handy when you copy it manually I see more cons than pros:
Here you can see as example some of the problems that I found thanks to
Maven in the Spring Framework build, that can be found in the chapter Converting existing Ant builds in the book Better Buils With Maven, that I filed in the Spring Framework issue tracker.
It’s also worth to say that Acegi Security System for Spring has been building happily with Maven 1 for far more than a year and now is switching to Maven 2. Spring Rich Client is also building now with Maven 2.
If you still are not convinced about splitting your jars in small components based on your use cases (bad for you), here is the work around in Maven:
Hope you choose the right way and don’t go into the dark side 😉
Carlos Sanchez's Weblog 