In today's world, many software projects rely on distributed software components where the development groups reside in different geographical locations.
This makes the software building process much more complicated then it used to be, and involves getting the software components to one particular location before the software building process can begin.
The old system of just making the software is not prevalent any more, as the software building process now requires more than just compilation and linking.
Now, the procedure includes creating a website to display the output of making the software and its results.
Running unit and functional tests on the software created, is also an added step in the production process.
The common practice in software engineering is to have automated daily builds based on scripts, (which every geographical place creates for its own use).
For this purpose, a new system was required, i.
e.
"Maven".
To our aid comes the "Maven" system that was built for the purpose of automating builds.
"Maven" comes from the Hebrew word "Mevin" which means a person that understands.
(or a person that accumulates knowledge).
In his article "Daily Builds Are Your Friend", Joel Spolsky promotes automating builds daily.
In his words the programmer's tasks are a loop of: "Edit, Compile, and Test".
Having this loop of functions performed automatically every day, makes finding bugs closer to the point of origin, and allows their quick fixing.
(while the changes are still fresh in the programmer's memory).
This concept of software development process is the core of modern software development processes such as "Agile".
The Maven system helps us in performing these tasks and sending conclusion mails to the proper audience.
Maven extends its operation to perform: a.
Resolving external dependencies and fetching external components.
b.
Building the system out of their separate components.
c.
Running unit tests.
(Including source coverage).
d.
Running functional tests.
e.
Sending conclusion mails (or detail description of errors) to proper audience.
f.
Updating revision control version with new version number automatically.
g.
Putting the processed results (Jar file etc.
) into central repository to be included with other projects.
h.
Building documentation as PDF files, web site pages etc.
In the past, professional software developers achieved these goals by building their own scripts and running them at periodical time using "cron".
So every project had its own "building" propriety mechanism.
Maven standardizes this process by bringing in more advanced features to the projects.
The Maven system is far more understandable than a "Makefile".
Its scripts are made using xml textual sentences and thus make the task of system maintenance much simpler.
Its primary goal was to be used in Java based software.
However, it can be used in legacy systems by using the "exec" command to run "Make".
In today's software "good manufacturing practice", Maven is considered to be one of the essential components.
Professional software developers should consider using it in a "nightly build" process.
This makes the software building process much more complicated then it used to be, and involves getting the software components to one particular location before the software building process can begin.
The old system of just making the software is not prevalent any more, as the software building process now requires more than just compilation and linking.
Now, the procedure includes creating a website to display the output of making the software and its results.
Running unit and functional tests on the software created, is also an added step in the production process.
The common practice in software engineering is to have automated daily builds based on scripts, (which every geographical place creates for its own use).
For this purpose, a new system was required, i.
e.
"Maven".
To our aid comes the "Maven" system that was built for the purpose of automating builds.
"Maven" comes from the Hebrew word "Mevin" which means a person that understands.
(or a person that accumulates knowledge).
In his article "Daily Builds Are Your Friend", Joel Spolsky promotes automating builds daily.
In his words the programmer's tasks are a loop of: "Edit, Compile, and Test".
Having this loop of functions performed automatically every day, makes finding bugs closer to the point of origin, and allows their quick fixing.
(while the changes are still fresh in the programmer's memory).
This concept of software development process is the core of modern software development processes such as "Agile".
The Maven system helps us in performing these tasks and sending conclusion mails to the proper audience.
Maven extends its operation to perform: a.
Resolving external dependencies and fetching external components.
b.
Building the system out of their separate components.
c.
Running unit tests.
(Including source coverage).
d.
Running functional tests.
e.
Sending conclusion mails (or detail description of errors) to proper audience.
f.
Updating revision control version with new version number automatically.
g.
Putting the processed results (Jar file etc.
) into central repository to be included with other projects.
h.
Building documentation as PDF files, web site pages etc.
In the past, professional software developers achieved these goals by building their own scripts and running them at periodical time using "cron".
So every project had its own "building" propriety mechanism.
Maven standardizes this process by bringing in more advanced features to the projects.
The Maven system is far more understandable than a "Makefile".
Its scripts are made using xml textual sentences and thus make the task of system maintenance much simpler.
Its primary goal was to be used in Java based software.
However, it can be used in legacy systems by using the "exec" command to run "Make".
In today's software "good manufacturing practice", Maven is considered to be one of the essential components.
Professional software developers should consider using it in a "nightly build" process.