The glassfish workspace is currently build using maven 1.0.2 and ant
1.6.5. We are discussing how to simplify this build structure. There has
been some discussion already, and I'm trying to summarize it here.
To make it easier, we need to decide if we want to go with a pure ANT
build or move to Maven 2.0 (or stay with Maven 1.x but use Maven as it
should). Right now we aren't using Maven the way it should, as Maven
under the hood calls Ant. The workspace is quite complex, and moving all
build.xml to Maven might take a lot of time.
Having a pure Ant or Maven build will make it easier to build. We just
need to decide which one we want to use, not both like it is right now.
But our workspace will always be more difficult to build than other
workspace because Glassfish isn't shipping all the source code. We
always need to "bootstrap" binaries, which complicate the process.
I see following options:
1) Migrate this to m2, w/o any ant scripts. I did some experiments, and
can build some glassfish modules with m2.
m2 is entirely independent from maven 1x, it doesn't use any of maven
1's configuration files. So we can migrate to m2 w/o scarifying the
working maven 1 build. I suggest following migration path to m2:
* build all glassfish modules with m2, abstracting common dependencies,
etc. into a "base" project, letting the modules inherit from that
* assembling the appserver library out of module jars previously build,
and then build the glassfish image.
2) If we're not using all/some of the Maven 2.0 features, like
install/docs/build/jars etc, Ant is an easier/cleaner solution. This can
easily be driven by Netbeans/Eclipse without any plug in to download.
3) Use the Maven 2.0 Ant task, which can be downloaded from:
http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/maven/binaries/maven-artifact-ant-2.0.2-dep.jar
4) Migrate from maven 1.0.2 to maven 1.1. Continue either with the
current mixed maven/ant approach , or replace ant by using maven.
We're eagerly looking for your input. Please supply your experience and
suggestions!
Thanks,
-- markus.