What is the best way to handle Java web application versioning?

Question

I have a standard Java application that handles both REST and UI calls. What is the best way for me to create and manage an application version (major.minor.release.build)? I'm using Subversion, Maven, Bamboo (continuous build) and Spring in the stack. I would like the version to be tied together with SVN, Bamboo and Maven. And, would like to be able to log version on start-up -- likely using some Spring bean.

There must be a framework/pattern out there to help with this. I'd rather not roll my own.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Why not use Semantic Versioning? It is what most people expect nowadays, it is pretty well defined and it is out there. Good enough for me.

Maven has a release plugin. This is a bear to setup first but once it is working it works well. It does all the nitty gritty of making sure everything is cleanly checked in, tagged properly, and does the magic with the version numbers. It is not a ask to look forward to, but at least now it is properly done. It pays to setup some maven repository. We use Nexus and can recommend that, but I heard good things of artifactory too.

During testing we do not rely on the maven version too much but on the build number, which we put in a discrete place on the web pages and similar artifacts so we can quickly determine which exact build we're talking about. We use hudson which provides the build number in an environment variable, but Bamboo must provide that too. The filter copy functionality makes that pretty straightforward.

Hudson tags the VCS (we use git, but that does not matter) with the build number and the maven release plugin tags the releases.

Answer 2

You can include the SCM revision number in your artifact using the maven build-number plugin (http://mojo.codehaus.org/buildnumber-maven-plugin/), e.g. in a filtered resource, such as a properties file.

If you are using Artifactory as your binary repo then it can also tag your binary artifacts with a build number and have full traceability from your artifact to the CI server build that created it. Currently this is supported with Hudson, TeamCity and Bamboo.