My "problem" is more philosophical than anything, and I'm not sure it's
really a problem. But, consider that by adding a web service client, a
small new piece of my application's functionality, the WAR file size has
ballooned in size from 3MB to over 10MB. Additionally, as I look at the
33 or so jars it was necessary to add to the war in order to get the
thing to run (and I manually hacked 14 out of the dependencies generated
by Maven which I found NOT to be needed), I can't say I know what most
of them do. Why, for example, was it necessary to include pieces of the
Spring framework, even though my application doesn't use that
framework? What, for Pete's sake, is Neethi, and why was it necessary
to add it? Quite a lot of stuff for the "simple" task of marshalling
and unmarshalling data into SOAP-XML packets and sending them across the
wire. From their names, it looks as though some of them repeat
functionality that is available in other jars - but who has time to
investigate? I also have a little nagging fear that down the road a few
weeks, when I have to add my NEXT web service client to this app (and
this one uses AXIS) I will end up adding another bunch of jars, some of
which may conflict with the ones just added.
In other words I feel that I've lost control of my application.
Prior to this, I understood my dependencies. I understand that there's
a tradeoff here. In return for letting go of control of my
dependencies, I have a potentially much simpler and more automated build
process - and I know that's a good thing - especially when and if I
convert the project's entire build process to Maven. And speaking of
CXF in particular, I like that the client code I need to write is not
particularly ugly, as it is with some other SOAP platforms (AXIS - grr
grr). But I continue to wonder whether it isn't a problem that Maven
encourages these chains of dependencies that grow geometrically without
appropriate consideration to developer understanding being given. For
the sake of developer understanding, would it perhaps be a good thing if
pom.xml dependency elements had a required <comment> element that the
composer of a POM would have to think about before issuing a POM to the
world? Or maybe a newer version of CXF will pare the dependencies down
to what is truly needed to run client-side and server-side apps.
<end of rant>
Brad O'Hearne wrote:
Steve,
So that I understand the problem properly, is your problem that
building downloads jars from maven repositories, or that these jars
are getting packaged into your WAR file, and you don't want that to
happen, due to some proprietary approach to deploying dependencies in
your app server environment?
Thanks,
Brad
On Nov 24, 2008, at 4:02 PM, Christian Schneider wrote:
In this case you can perhaps use the following maven plugin.
It copies all jars you depend on into a folder target/lib. This is
probably what you need to build your war file the old way.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>dependency-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>copy-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib</outputDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Greetings
Christian
Steve Cohen schrieb:
Yeah, that's where I'm at.
1) in a BIG company with a Dilbert-style "Productivity Prevention
Department" :-)
2) on the other hand, in a small, practically invisible backwaterish
part of the BIG company so that there is nothing like an SCM team,
application not deployed in data center, etc.
3) Preexisting product with preexisting handbuilt war including some
VERY nonstandard proprietary jars and shared libraries that have to
be included.
4) Deadlines
The chances of rewriting the build process anytime soon to use Maven
in this context are next to nil, notwithstanding the value that
Maven nonetheless would undoubtedly provide.
But, since the advantages of using CXF here are great, my temporary
solution is going to have to be
* build the test project my vendor has supplied me with maven,
* transfer the jars maven downloads for me to another location
* build the new war incorporating the old stuff and the now stuff
It would be nice to port the whole mess to Maven but I don't have
the time for it now.
--
Christian Schneider
---
http://www.liquid-reality.de
