Another Not-so-well-known Gem: Ant Maven Task
Ok: I thought it was common knowledge that:
- Maven repositories are great for storing versions of product artifacts (jars), but
- Converting projects to Maven is sometimes big hassle, since it requires everything to be set up the Way Maven Wants (which is the key to keeping configuration to minimum, convention-over-configuration)
and that these two points are somewhat conflicting.
So: while it is
an absolutely great idea to provide jars of non-Maven projects through
Maven repositories, it may be royal PITA to get that done by Mavenizing
builds. Or, well, at least extra work that is easily deferred, given
half a chance.
But fortunately you can both ship your dog food, and staunchly refuse to eat it: just use Ant Maven Task to publish ("deploy") any Ant-produced (or whatever you use) into Maven repositories (including snapshot repos)! And allow those diligent Maven users (or smarties who use, say, Ivy, but with Maven repos!) to use your great library, without giving in to demands of converting to this new religion. :-)
So why am I writing this entry? Because it looks like there are still developers who do not know this nifty shortcut! But no more -- you have been advised: get the artifacts out; it's good for you and others.
ps. This is quite similar to how you REALLY should also make sure your
jars are actual OSGi
bundles. How? By either: (a) using Maven (which has bundle generation
targets), or (b) Just Use Ant (JUA), with the nifty -- yes, you guessed
it! -- Ant
OSGi Bundle task... :-)
