Archie - thanks!
I think have a meta repository is a great step. I have been following ivy
for a while. I have on my todo list to replace (enhance) our project build
files to use Ivy. However, I have been dragging my feet because I don't
want to build all of the ivy files that I will need. I think having a
repository where ivy files can be shared is great - it's just icing that we
can have a plugin for ivy to do a lot of the repacking work.
I've noticed that you put up an initial list of ivy files. Do you have a
process for adding more? Submit patches to the issue tracker?
Also, a general request - does anyone have a hibernate ivy file they would
like to contribute? That's always been the one I started with and have
always stopped with it due to lack of time to figure everything out.
Chris....
Archie Cobbs wrote:
Hello fellow Ivy users,
I'd like to announce a new little project I've started, and ask for your
feedback (and help, if interested).
This project has two basic parts...
1. *Builder
Resolver*<http://ivyroundup.googlecode.com/svn/wiki/files/builder.html>:
a new Ivy resolver that accesses ivy files and "build instructions" from an
online "builder" repository. "Builder" repositories contain ivy.xml files
but no artifacts. To get the artifacts, the build instructions are
downloaded from the repository and executed locally. These instructions
specify additional resource(s) to download and how to build the artifacts
from them, for example, by downloading a project's original distribution
archive directly from their web site and extracting the desired artifacts.
2. *Ivy RoundUp Repository* <http://ivyroundup.googlecode.com/>: an
online, open-source community "Builder" repository for all Ivy users.
Please click the links for more info and documentation.
I am lobbying to get the builder resolver added into Ivy itself; right now
it's still in patch form (you can download a pre-built ivy.jar from the
project website).
Some motivations for starting this project:
1. Ivyrep is no longer maintained, but we need a decent community Ivy
repository that everyone can share
2. Hosting hundreds of large files that are just copies of the same
files available elsewhere is expensive and redundant, so let's avoid doing
that
3. 99% of projects out there do not publish ivy.xml files, so we need
a community project that focuses on developing and maintaining them
4. To get the most out of Ivy, there needs to be a consistent set of
guidelines for creating ivy.xml files: how to choose organization names,
philosophy for defining configurations, etc. A community project supported
by Ivy users can provide this.
What I want to do is gauge interest in this idea and ask for any volunteers
who'd like to start adding and maintaining meta-data for their favorite
projects. The Ivy RoundUp repository is online now, though only as a
proof-of-concept (it only contains a few modules so far). Take a look and
you should be able to get the general idea:
http://ivyroundup.googlecode.com/
In the worst case, if nobody else is interested, I will just use this for
myself -- it's already working better than what I was doing (i.e., checking
in giant ZIP files into Subversion and creating a project for every one to
publish into our private Ivy repository), and in any case the work of
setting it up is already done. Note also anyone could create their own
private builder repository using this project as well.
In the best case, we'll put together a piece of infrastructure that all Ivy
users can really benefit from.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
-Archie
