using JSBuilder2.jar in Maven2 Web Application

Question

Hi Folks,

I have started playing with Maven2 and I'm attempting to port one of my projects from ant to maven. I have managed to build ear file, use jaxb and other bits, but there is one thing left I don't know how to approach.

I have WAR module, with ExtJS code, and I'm using JSBuilder to create and package the code nicely. This is done as ant task and looks like this:

<target name="-pre-compile" description="Building Frontend Libraries">
    <java jar="web/lib/dev/JSBuilder2.jar" failonerror="true" fork="true" >
        <arg line="--projectFile web/lib/dev/frontend.jsb2 --homeDir web/lib"/>
    </java>
</target>

I am wondering what would be the 'maven' way to do this? Is there a way I can do it purely in maven (had a look at maven:exec plugin but is a bit confusing) or do I have to call ant from maven to achieve this?

Thanks

Answer 1

The exec-maven-plugin is the correct answer (though you want the java goal). You need to bind it to a lifecycle phase. Look at the usage page for an example. In your case, you'd need something like this:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.1</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>jsbuilder</id>
      <goals>
        <goal>java</goal>
      </goals>
      <phase>compile</phase>
      <configuration>
        <mainClass><!-- fill in from jar's META-INF/MANIFEST.MF --></mainClass>
        <argument>--projectFile</argument>
        <argument>web/lib/dev/frontend.jsb2</argument>
        <argument>--homedir</argument>
        <argument>web/lib</argument>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
  <configuration>
    <includeProjectDependencies>false</includeProjectDependencies>
    <includePluginDependencies>true</includePluginDependencies>
  </configuration>
  <dependencies>
    <!-- a bit nasty, would be better if jsbuilder2 available in a maven repo. -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.extjs</groupId>
      <artifactId>jsbuilder2</artifactId>
      <version>2.0.0</version>
      <scope>system</scope>
      <systemPath>web/lib/dev/JSBuilder2.jar</systemPath>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>

If you're a big user of JSBuilder2, it'd be worth asking Cencha if they can release it to the maven central repo. Point them at OSS Repository Hosting.