Based the previous emails about a war task and discussions held on the irc
channel between myself, dIon, and Jason, here's a first cut at a
standardized WAR build process for maven.
This email is just the description; by the time I'm done this it will be
time for bed, and I get little enough sleep as it is. :) I'll probably do
a first cut of an implementation tomorrow.
I'm almost certain to have missed a detail or two. I'm sure dIon will
point out what I've missed.
Goals
=====
This process is designed to build one war, with little or no modification
to the POM.
Directory Layout
================
WAR Repository
--- ----------
Static content src/webapps/${maven.war.name}
WEB-INF/web.xml src/conf/${maven.war.name}-web.xml
WEB-INF/classes ${build.dir}/**/*.class
WEB-INF/lib Dependent jars from POM (dependencies.set)
Properties
==========
Name Description
---- -----------
maven.war.name The name of the WAR file. This must be set -
there is no default value.
maven.war.content Static content location, defaulting to
src/webapps/${maven.war.name}.
maven.war.classes The WEB-INF/classes files, defaults to
${build.dir}/**/*.class
maven.war.lib The WEB-INF/lib fileset, defaults to the set
of jars from the <dependency> elements.
(dIon - how was this to work again?)
maven.war.manifest The manifest file, defaulting to the standard
Maven manifest.
maven.war.prepareBuildFile These two properties are used to provide a
maven.war.prepareBuildTarget hook for doing any additional preparation;
see the "Process" section below.
maven.war.updateBuildFile These two properties are used to provide a
maven.war.updateBuildTarget hook for doing any additiona work on the
generated WAR file; see the "Process" section
below.
Build File
==========
The build filename will be build-j2ee.xml and the target to create the war
is (surprise) war. The delegator target name is maven:war. The
build-j2ee.xml file has all the standard init targets.
Process
=======
1. Delegate to compile and jar-resources in build-maven.xml to create the
*.class files and move any resource files into place.
2. If the properties ${maven.war.prepareBuildFile} and
${maven.war.prepareBuildTarget} are set, execute
<ant antfile="${maven.war.prepareBuildFile}"
target="${maven.war.prepareBuildTarget}" />
This provides a hook to do any additional prep work (like moving
template files in the classes directory, etc.) before creating the war.
Thanks to Jason for the technique.
3. Create the WAR file : target/${maven.war.name}.war
4. If the properties ${maven.war.updateBuildFile} and
${maven.war.updateBuildTarget} are set, execute
<ant antfile="${maven.war.updateBuildFile}"
target="${maven.war.updateBuildTarget}" />
This provides a hook to do any post processing required on the war
file.
Afterwards
==========
You know, I think it would have been faster to simply write the build file
than this email. :)
Note that while the goal of this process is to build a single war file,
it can already build mutliple wars with differing web.xml and static
content with the same set of WEB-INF/classes and WEB-INF/lib files due to
the use of the ${maven.war.name} property. Its a start.
Glenn McAllister
SOMA Networks, Inc.
