----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason van Zyl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 4:57 PM
Subject: Central Repository for JARs
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to create a build system using JJAR and Ant that will allow
the
> use of a central repository of JARs on a local system so that JARs don't
> have to be stored in CVS but the build process for a developer will be
just
> as easy.
>
> I was originally using a single directory with a series of JARs contained
> within, than Vincent suggested using a directory structure.
>
> But I think it boils down to a project specifying a dependency on a
> particular version of a JAR. Ideally it would be good if the latest
version
> would work but this is not going to be the case in practice.
>
> Right now I have something like the following:
>
> build.properties
> ----------------
> velocity.jar = ${lib.repo}/velocity-1.2.jar
>
> build.xml
> ---------
> <path id="classpath">
> <pathelement location="${velocity.jar}"/>
> </path>
>
> And if we used a directory structure we might have something like
> the following
>
> build.properties
> ----------------
> velocity.jar = ${lib.repo}/velocity/1.2/velocity.jar
>
> I think at some point the project has to state a dependency on a
particular
> version so I was wondering what people thought?
>
> I think using JJAR and Ant a build system could be constructured so that
all
> java projects could use it to make building very easy while not having to
> store JARs in multiple places. With the definition of ${lib.repo} in your
> ~/build.properties file the whole thing could work. I have been trying to
> get this to work with the turbine projects so there is a working example
and
> geir has been help me so hopefully there will be something to show
shortly.
>
> I thought I would solicit opinions and see if anyone else would actually
use
> this system if made.
+1 for the idea. I'm not sure how it would integrate with Cactus let's say :
* certainly I will need to put a jjar.jar file somewhere (chicken and egg
pb). However if I understand correctly JJAR will be used as an Ant task, so
the jjar.jar file will not be linked to Cactus but rather will be put in
$ANT_HOME/lib so that it will be in than Ant classpath when I type 'ant xxx'
?
* then where would it fit in my build.xml file ? As part of my init target
so that it will check for dependencies and download the needed jars of
internet and put them in the specified directory ? It would need to handle
the case where I am not connected to the internet and do nothing.
* I would like to be able not to specify any version in my jjar.properties
(where the dependencies are defined) so that the JJAR task will download the
latest version if there is newer one than the current one in my repository.
In other words, I would still keep the Cactus build.properties but the paths
within it will point to the JJAR repository directory instead and I'll just
have to add a call to the JJAR task in my init target. And everyone building
Cactus will need to ensure that the JJAR task is in Ant (it should be
possible to test for it and not do anything if not in the classapath,
though). Is that right ?
Thanks
-Vincent
