Hi all, I started using the pom import feature ( http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-dependency-mechanism.html#Importing_Dependencies), and discovered that it differed from my expectations. What I was looking for was a way to define a new artifact in a pom that, if used in a consuming artifact's <dependencies>, would include all of the dependencies in the referenced artifact.
For example, take DataNucleus. I've defined my own pom for import purposes that contains both the <dependencyManagement> section and <dependencies> that are to be included. It's at https://github.com/matthewadams/datanucleus-rdbms/blob/master/pom.xml. As a client, if I use the existing pom import support, then all I effectively get are entries in my pom's <dependencyManagement> section. The inconvenient thing is, I still have to declare each of the imported pom's dependencies that I want. That kind of defeats the purpose of defining a pom to be imported, IMHO. Instead, I'd like to propose that a new scope be introduced called "include", that implies <type>pom</type> so that all I have to do is use the following in my consuming pom: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"; xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"; xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd";> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>me.matthewadams</groupId> <artifactId>pom-include-client</artifactId> <version>0.1.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version> <packaging>jar</packaging> <dependencies> <!-- this dependency would pull in all dependencies listed in the referenced pom's <dependencies> section --> <dependency> <groupId>me.matthewadams</groupId> <artifactId>datanucleus-rdbms</artifactId> <!-- <type>pom</type> implied by next line, so unnecessary; anything else is an error --> <scope>include</scope> <!-- NEW! different from "import"! --> <version>3.1.4</version> </dependency> </dependencies> </project> This way, it's extremely convenient to get all the constituent artifacts without having to declare them all. Thoughts? -matthew -- mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]> skype:matthewadams12 googletalk:[email protected] http://matthewadams.me http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewadams
