Apart from the other long list of fixes so far, Emmanuel has been hard at work cleaning up the JDO code, resulting in massive speed improvements on the project page, as well as when queuing and executing builds.

Joel and Emmanuel also applied a new skin to the web interface, which you can see below. It's a lot more trim...

If you are interested in checking it out, the latest *development* build is available here.

This will be the stable release for a little while, as Continuum 1.1 rolls on with the conversion to WebWork2, a number of UI improvements to make it easier to use, integration of Geronimo's GBuild for distributed builds, and a number of other minor features.

The main reason I had put it off for so long was that I hadn't yet learned much about actually using TestNG and I knew I was going to have to make some changes to our test runner code called Surefire that has been around a long time and not evolved with the Maven 2 architecture. The patch for TestNG worked out of the box, but didn't (couldn't) integrate with other features.

There were some rough edges along the way. Since the patch was using a few internal APIs from TestNG that were public, upgrading through releases that had come since constantly broke the code. Might be time to introduce them to Clirr, another of my favourite new toys :)

However, the refactoring is now done and the TestNG code all revisited, and we've landed support that is comparable to JUnit (3) and the basic POJO test runner that is built in. It supports all of the fork modes (none, once for the whole suite, or fork for each test set), but more importantly integrates with anything else in the build lifecycle, such as Cobertura, without any additional configuration. This required very little TestNG specifics, so hopefully the basis is now there for other providers, as we start to see requests for JUnit 4 roll in. This is pretty satisfying, as we get to see the fulfilment of Maven's promised build knowledge reusability in action.

Once released, using TestNG tests is just a matter of including:

And from there you can run the usual mvn test, mvn cobertura:cobertura, mvn clover:clover, etc. Of course, you can customise them to enable things such as parallel test execution and using TestNG's XML suite definition files instead of the normal includes/excludes mechanism.

Another great thing is that you can try out TestNG immediately, even with your JUnit tests in place - the test runner finds each Java file and sets the JUnit flag for tests if appropriate so that they can be mixed in the directory with TestNG tests.

There are some instructions for those that might be game enough to test it before the release, but it is not quite there yet and there are still some minor bugs to be resolved. Hopefully, these won't hold it up for too long.

All in all, I think this is a great development and I certainly anticipate trying out TestNG on my current project. Just as soon as I get through all the mail I haven't read while I was playing around with it.

Technorati Tags: maven

• The Windows install of Tomcat omits all the startup scripts because you get a service, and you'd never want anything else, right? The IDEA support requires the scripts, so I grab the tarball instead.
• Errors on startup. SEVERE: Error filterStart. I know that means an exception in the filters I have configured. I'd like to know what it is. But the only way I'm extracting it is with a breakpoint and startup in debug mode (yes, this was my fault, but a little more helpful error message would be nice).
• Ok, everything working. Webapp redeploys most of the time, in about 15-20 seconds after making changes. Sometimes it needs a stop/start cycle to pick it up though.
• Somehow I manage to get a NullPointerException on startup when it was working before. Googling seems to indicate this is an invalid ROOT.xml, as I see a user getting reprimanded for not bothering to do validation on the XML. Sorry, but a NullPointerException is a bug, user error or not. I can't find the cause, the XML is valid and I've deleted IDEA's cache of the tomcat base to no avail.
  

• web resources read directly from the source tree, so you can edit, save, refresh without any deploying, etc.
• detects changes on a scheduled interval (I'm using 10 seconds), reloads the webapp if classes/descriptors/libs change. It reloads fast and I haven't seen it fall over on it yet.
• Very little setup required.

<plugin>

  <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>

  <artifactId>maven-jetty6-plugin</artifactId>

  <configuration>

    <scanIntervalSeconds>10</scanIntervalSeconds>

    <contextPath>/</contextPath>

  </configuration>

</plugin>

mvn jetty6:run

1. Open source library and framework developers and release managers - Even if you don't use Maven yourself, chances are your users do. Treat that support as importantly as any other feature request. You can submit your own Maven metadata, and even have your releases automatically published to the Maven repository system. Here are the instructions for both. It's also important to consider how your choice of dependencies affects your users. Putting all your functionality into one library is a distribution convenience, but can cause confusion for users about what the dependencies really are if they only use a part. Give them a choice. Produce libraries with discrete, independant functionality and clear dependencies (including clear version requirements), and produce the convenient bundled archive with the lot.
   
2. Developers interested in working on an application - participate in the Maven Repository Manager. We are building an application that does all the fun things like reporting on bad data, converting Maven 1.x repositories, and doing searches and browsing of the repository. You can comment on the brief feature and design notes. You can help us fix or implement issues in the repository manager, or in Maven itself. Vote for the ones important to you. Or discuss your ideas on dev@maven.apache.org with the other developers.
   
3. Users of the Maven repository - Help us fix metadata with usability problems. Even better, get the project you are using to buy into the problem and help fix it.
   

There's plenty happening for Maven right now. This release is the second last beta as we approach the final release in the next couple of weeks. More of the original plugins are now available, and most boast improved functionality on top of the enhancements to the Maven engine itself. If you can't do it with this beta, you won't be able to do it with the final. It's bugfixes, better error reporting and doco from here on out.

The web site today sports a new look, much nicer than the boxish default look that has been around for the last couple of years.

We knew from Maven 1.0 that people didn't mind delving into the betas to find out what was going on, but given the bad experience many had with them last time around, I expected that it would be a bit quieter for Maven 2.0.

I was wrong.

We've had a huge amount of interest since the first beta was released - some using the ant tasks, some migrating from ant, some coming from maven 1.x. Hopefully we've given them a better experience this time around, with the releases being very consistent right through the betas.

Back in June, JavaOne was indicative of the current trend for Maven. Plenty of folks dropped by the Mergere booth to say hi and let us know how they were using Maven. Glassfish was announced and its use of Maven was a talking point, and the 2 BOF's we held were packed out. What I thought was a dud time turned out to have people sitting on the floor with about 90 people squeezing into the small presentation room on both occasions. And only once was that for the free beer.

Maven is popular. As the recent ONJava survey said - 19% of respondants use it. But its still the tool you'll love to hate - as one respondant to the same survey also said.

Maven 2.0 will probably be no different, but hopefully this time only due to the fear of change rather than any technical limitations. I hope to write more on that tomorrow.

Download: http://maven.apache.org/maven2/download.html

The main improvements in this release are:

* Bug fixes in the reporting API to allow the clover plugin to work in more scenarios
* Bug fixes in the artifact collector for version ranges
* Improvements to offline mode

This release is considered stable with a feature set comparable to Maven 1.0. Further betas and the final are expected to be backwards compatible, with a primary goal of bugfixes, usability improvements, and documentation.

The current roadmap is to make weekly beta releases to encourage faster turnaround for issues found by the
community.

This core release is independent of the plugins available. Further releases of plugins will be made separately.
See Maven Plugin Matrix for more information.

We hope you enjoy using Maven! If you have any questions, please consult:

* the web site
* the maven-user mailing list

For news and information, see:

* Maven Blogs

Beta-2, out today, contains a number of bugfixes, especially to do with dependency resolution.

Beta-3 will focus on polishing up the exception handling and any remaining major issues.

Beta-4 is expected to be close to the final release, with all blocking issues fixed.

At this point, we're keen to get some stable releases out there - there are lots of people looking to put it into production now so it is time to start locking it down. We also expect to deliver regular releases over the following weeks to resolve any minor issues, while work commences on the 2.1 feature release.

Download it from http://maven.apache.org/maven2/download.html

This release includes 206 bug fixes and enhancements since the previous release on 26 June.

The main new features in this release are:

* Further improved dependency management: full support for dependency ranges
* Reactor project aggregation support and summary
* File system discovery of POMs and artifacts to reduce build time and use of local and remote repositories
* Repository metadata support
* System scope dependency support
* Eclipse compiler support, ability to fork compiler
* Ability to automatically bundle sources and javadoc with deployments
* Maven 1.x repository support
* Allow use of setters in mojos for field population
* Ability to separate snapshot repository
* Ability to set minimum Maven version requirement for projects and plugins
* Build extension support
* Bugfixes and enhancements

This release is considered stable with a feature set comparable to Maven 1.0. Further betas and the final are expected to be backwards compatible, with a primary goal of bugfixes, usability improvements, and documentation.

A large number of plugins will be released in the coming week to match the primary Maven 1.0 plugin set.
See Maven Plugin Matrix for more information.

We hope you enjoy using Maven! If you have any questions, please consult:

* the web site
* the maven-user mailing list

For news and information, see:

* Maven Blogs

-> Release Notes

-> Download

This knocks quite a few minutes off the Geronimo build in my environment, so give it a whirl and let us know if it works for you so we can push towards a final 1.1 release!

It seems the next releases of JavaMail and Activation binaries will be available under CDDL, and I hear other spec jars are going down that same path.

If I understand the license correctly, this means they can be distributed from the Maven repository at Ibiblio, as long as they carry a notice that indicates where the source can be located.

I'll definitely be following this closely. It may even be worth building our own snapshot of these libraries from sources and pushing them up to ibiblio, though personally I'd prefer to wait for an official release rather than risk proliferating a temporary version.

Given that Glassfish builds with Maven, maybe we can add them to the list of repository sync partners and releases would be pushed out automatically in the same way as other open source organisations - who knows.

Download it from http://maven.apache.org/maven2/download.html

This release includes 83 bug fixes and enhancements since the previous release on 13 May.

Maven 2.0 is a rewrite of the popular Maven application to achieve a number of goals, and to provide a stable basis to take it into the future. While it can be considered quite stable, and future versions are now expected to retain a high amount of backwards compatibility, this is still a technology preview, and not yet complete or considered ready for a production environment.

The main new features in this release are:

• Improved dependency management


• Build profiles for environment specific settings and dependencies


• Finalised build lifecycle


• Proper handling of derived dependency type such as sources, javadocs and ejb clients


• Beanshell plugin support


• Improved reporting support, including internationalisation.


• Improvements to the Ant tasks


• Better plugin management, with the ability to select specific versions for use


• Various plugin improvements

This release is very near to being feature complete, and the next release will be a feature complete beta-1.

We hope you enjoy using Maven! If you have any questions, please consult:

* the web site: http://maven.apache.org/maven2/
* the maven-user mailing list: http://maven.apache.org/mail-lists.html

For news and information, see:

* Maven Blogs: http://www.mavenblogs.com/

I think it is now possible to do everything you could do in Maven 1.0 in Maven 2, as far as the core is concerned (and of course, a whole lot more!)

The main change that triggered this for me was the finalisation of the build lifecycle. While we've been adding a lot of new features, this one was important to facilitate some use cases in Maven1 that were previously unavailable to Maven2 plugin writers.

This is a good milestone to hit, as the external API for plugin writers has now stabilised and some additional efforts can be put in there to rewrite the popular Maven1 plugins and reports to leverage the improvements of Maven2, so that users can see the same benefits.

The Maven 2.0 alpha-3 release is due out on Wednesday, including those changes and more.

In addition, the dependency management has started to undergo its usability improvements and will shortly have the version ranges and conflict resolution that has been on the todo list so long. And of course, this will also be available automatically in the Ant tasks (which have already undergone a number of other improvements for this release as well) and the standalone Java code you can use yourself.

This is a big release as we are very close to being feature complete for the 2.0 core, and entering beta testing with the July release (that is, bugfixes, cosmetic improvements and above all documentation - avoiding API, usage and metadata changes).

So if you've been thinking of trying Maven2 out, watch out for the release this week. We'd love to hear what you think about it and it is the best time to get your feedback in for the 2.0 release cycle.

From the release notes...

http://maven.apache.org/start/download.html

This release focuses on the following objectives:

• Integration of Maven 2 technologies such as Maven Wagon, Maven SCM and the new model code


• Ant 1.6.5 support


• Upgrade to later releases of dependencies, in particular Jelly


• Significant improvements in memory usage


• Improved POM layout


• Bugfixes

With just a few exceptions, Maven 1.1 is backwards compatible with Maven 1.0.

For a full list of changes, please see JIRA.

IMPORTANT: You must ensure that Maven 1.1 is first in your path if you want to have it installed side-by-side with Maven 1.0.2

We hope you enjoy using Maven! If you have any questions, please consult:

• the FAQ: http://maven.apache.org/faq.html


• the maven-user mailing list: http://maven.apache.org/mail-lists.html

For news and information, see:

• Maven Blogs: http://www.mavenblogs.com/