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I have just released version 0.20 of Maven: The Definitive Guide.  This release is mostly a produce of the feedback from GetSatisfaction and it consists of a large number of grammar and spelling errors being caught by readers.   Here’s a list of the changes in version 0.20:

• A section in the installation chapter about upgrading from Maven 1 to Maven 2.   I’m constantly getting questions from people about customizing a Maven 2 build by string goal names together on the command-line so I put some language into the installation chapter that points people at the Maven Lifecycle.   The Maven Lifecycle really is the thing to learn first in Maven, if you figure out how the Maven Lifecycle works and if you become familiar with the Default lifecycle, Maven 2 will make more sense.    This new section is small, but it points people toward the Maven One plugin and configuring a legacy repository.   If you are upgrading from Maven 1 to Maven 2, let me know if this section is what you needed.
• Arun Kumar submitted a list of typos and grammar errors throughout the Introduction.   A number of typos were fixed in the introduction.
• A number of typos were fixed in the Assemblies chapter.
• A number of typos were fixed in the Profiles chapter.
• A number of typos were fixed in the Writing Plugins chapter.

Book Book

Once again, this is a small update to the book, but I want to err on the side of transparency.  I’m announcing every version update even if it is small.  I just cut a 0.19 version release, this captures some small changes to the book content driven by the reports from our users on GetSatisfaction.  This update contains a number of changes triggered by Paco Soberón and “Fred”.  Here is a list of updates for the 0.19 release:

Read more…

Book Book

I hesitate to even announce this release as it is a series of subtle typo fixes and corrections driven by our Get Satisfaction page, but I also think that there is a certain value in being completely transparent and announcing every release (even the minor ones). I’ve cut this release because there are a number of small typo fixes that were building up, and I’m getting ready to add more weigh to some of the reference chapters. Instead of sitting on these simple updates, I’d rather get them published and released. Read more…

Book Book

We’ve had a lot of support for our online, free version of Maven: The Definitive Guide, and I think that we’ve created a good introduction and reference for both new and veteran Maven users. In my opinion, we’re about half way to the point of creating a lasting reference for the next decade. Personally, I’d like to see: more examples in the intro portion of the book, and more details in the reference part of the book. I’d like to see a whole section devoted to the internals of Maven and the process of developing Maven. Additionally, I think the community deserves a closer look at some of the unepxected uses of Maven. I could easily see this book growing another 500 pages or being split into two, and I’d also like to see us supplement this reference with other books in the near future.

Read more…

Book, Maven

Juven Xu has been busy translating chapters for the Chinese translation of Maven: The Definitive Guide, and we’re pleased to announce the release of four Chinese chapters.

• Chapter 1: here (Introducing Apache Maven)
• Chapter 2: here (Installing Apache Maven)
• Chapter 4: here (Customizing Maven)
• Chapter 5: here (Simple Web Project)

This is an initial release, and if you click on the links below, you’ll notice that the translated chapters are presented alongside untranslated English chapters. As we progress toward a full translation of Maven: The Definitive Guide, the Table of Contents is going to reflect our progress.

If you have questions about Maven or if you are interested in reading more Maven-oriented content in Chinese, see Juven Xu’s Maven.

PHOTO CREDIT: Licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution. Photo provided by Montrasio International, see original.

Book, Community, News

There’s been a new release of Nexus verion 1.0.0-beta-4. To download this new release, go to the Nexus Download Page, and download the release from July 3rd, 2008.

We’ve also updated the Nexus chapter in the online version of the book to coincide with this release. Changes include a post-install checklist, scheduled services, and coverage of other new features. Including…

• A Post-install Checklist: Run through this post-install checklist to make sure that your proxied repositories are downloading the remote indexes
• Scheduled Services: Nexus now has support for scheduled services which can run on arbitrary schedules. These services are used for such things as publishing indexes or clearing caches.
• Expanded Coverage of Using Nexus: Browsing Repositories, Groups, and searching for Artifacts
• A section on the System Feeds: Nexus publishes a set of RSS feeds which track system events.
• Reading Nexus logs and configuration files from the Nexus UI
• Instructions for using the new deployment user to conduct secure deployments to hosted repositories.
• Modifying your Maven settings to work with the deployment user security
• …and more…

Check it out. Go to the Nexus Project Site and Read the Nexus Chapter.

Book, Nexus

m2eclipse is more than just a simple plugin, it changes the way you’ll create projects. Specifically, it will allow you to create projects from archetypes without having to type a command-line the size of a paragraph. I just updated the m2eclipse chapter and included more details about the 88 available archetypes in the Maven repository.

On deck for the book is information about the POM editor…

The following is an excerpt from the chapter. What is interesting about the m2eclipse plugin is that it has the side-effect of making it easier to adopt the projects that have created Maven Archetypes. Granted, this project list could be larger, but it should be interesting to someone who wants to get a quickstart into developing an application with Wicket or AppFuse. The other thing that is very cool about m2eclipse is that it doesn’t ship with a static list of archetypes, m2eclipse is using the Nexus Indexer to maintain an index of the Maven repository.

When this chapter was last updated, m2eclipse had approximately ninety archetypes in this Archetype dialog. Highlights of this list include:

^[4]And these were just the archetypes that were listed under the Nexus Indexer Catalog, if you switch Catalogs you’ll see other archetypes. While your results may vary, the following additional archetypes were available in the Internal Catalog:

Book, m2eclipse

We’re making a lot of quality updates to the book, this revision of Maven: The Definitive Guide updates the introduction and adds some content to the POM chapter. Have fun reading, and let us know if you have any feedback - book@sonatype.com

It is amazing the number of typos I find everytime I give this book a proofreading, this particular revision addresses some of the remaining typos (and there are many more left!) I did a quick proof/edit of the settings appendix and I addressed some issues in the POM chapter. Revision 0.8 Here

Book

I’ve finished a quick production update of John Casey’s original Maven Assemblies chapter in Maven: The Definitive Guide. This chapter provides a great deal of information about the Maven Assembly plugin and has some recommendations and best practices. Check it out, and send any feedback to book@sonatype.com.

This chapter is massive, and it took me a surprisingly long time to process John’s original chapter. John wrote the original in a Pages document that was something like 50+ pages in length. I had to copy the whole thing to XMLMind and translate it to the super-fancy, annotated, xref, example-ridden DocBook XML format.

As I went, I rearranged a few things, rewrote a bunch of copy, and tried to add what I could to support John’s original content. The end product is a chapter that leaves very little unexplored wrt Assemblies. Read it, review it, send your feedback to book@sonatype.com.

Book

An update to the MavenBook, a new new reference chapter on properties and resource filtering. The chapter (and the blog post) is short and simple by design, providing a quick overview of the properties available to POM writers and also the start of the Resource Filtering sections.

Coming Up next: Core plugin overview and an expansion of the resource filtering section.

Book