Installing a framework without maven or gradle - java

I try to install Javalin framework for creating an API on my Java project. (old java 8 project without maven, gradle, etc). I would like to install the framework with adding the jars to my build path.
But If I add the main jar file then it needs another dependencies jar , then another one another one another one.. etc.
Is there any simple way to add this to my project and all it's dependencies without any build tool like Maven,etc?
I have tried adding it manually , but each jar has many dependencies that it is almost impossible(?)

Well you could create a Maven project and use it to download the dependencies for you.
Maven dependency plugin might be useful. With it you could just call:
mvn dependency:copy-dependencies
and it will download all your dependencies into target/dependency.

I don't think there's a way, I'm afraid.  Dependency management is the exact problem that build tools like Maven and Gradle were created to solve!
The framework supplier could provide a ‘fat’ jar including all the dependencies; but I'm not aware of any that do, as everyone uses Maven or Gradle (or SBT or Ivy or Grape or Leiningen or Buildr).
I think the only real alternative is to do it manually — which, as you've discovered, can be a horrible and lengthy task if the dependency tree is big.  (And would need redoing with every update.)
So I'd suggest biting the bullet and using Maven if you can.

Related

Gradle Plugin dependency

What is the exact dependency I need to develop a Gradle Plugin in Java? Ideally I would like to get it from a well-known repository such as Maven Central or similar.
I have a Maven project with a core functionality and I just added two extra plugins, one for Ant, one for Maven. They are already tested and working; easy! Now, I wanted to add a third module for a Gradle plugin to make this functionality also available from any Gradle project.
However, I can't find the exact dependencies I need to develop a Gradle plugin.
The Gradle docs (such as https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/java_gradle_plugin.html) are not very well written to say the least. They mention:
the gradleAPI() dependency
or the java-gradle-plugin dependency
But they are quite unclear... no group, no version (really?).
If anyone can enlighten me to where I can get these dependencies from, I would be very thankful.
Gradle's public and internal APIs, aka gradleApi(), are bundled with the Gradle distribution and not independently published and therefore not easily consumable by Maven builds. There's the pending epic #1156 (Ensure plugin cross-version compatibility by allowing a user to depend on gradlePublicApi()) that might help here.
Since Gradle plugins are best to be built with Gradle, a pragmatic solution is to invoke the Gradle build from Maven and attach the produced artifact to the Maven build. Andres Almiray (aalmiray) once described this in the blog post Running Gradle Inside Maven (Web Archive Link). He describes the following high level steps:
Create a new Maven module (e.g. gradle-plugin) and add attach it to the parent POM
In the POM of gradle-plugin add a dependency to your core module. Use the maven-dependency-plugin to store dependencies to the Maven build folder, e.g. target/dependencies.
Create the build.gradle, add a Maven repository that points to target/dependencies (step 2) and let it depend on the core module as well as gradleApi(). Implement the Gradle plugin.
Use the exec-maven-plugin to invoke the Gradle build.
Use the maven-resources-plugin to copy the Gradle built plugin jars to the standard Maven build folder.
Use the build-helper-maven-plugin to attach the copied jars to the Maven build.
Sample project to be found here (gradle-in-maven).
https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/custom_plugins.html#sec:custom_plugins_standalone_project
In here it is mentioned that it is gradleApi() and I know that this works (from experience). The localGroovy() on that page is only needed if your plugin code uses groovy (does not apply if you only use groovy in the build.gradle of your plugin).
java-gradle-plugin is a library that makes it a bit simpler to make plugins, it is not required though. I personally prefer using gradleApi only.
EDIT:
It appears I've misunderstood the question. Here are the steps to get gradleApi jar:
Create a Gradle project with your desired Gradle version.
Add implementation gradleApi() dependency.
Import/run the project once.
Go to your .gradle folder (located in home folder in Linux-based operating systems).
Open caches folder
Open the version folder you want, e.g. 6.0.1
Open generated-gradle-jars folder.
Copy the jar to wherever you want and use it.
For me the 6.0.1 jar is at ~/.gradle/caches/6.0.1/generated-gradle-jars/gradle-api-6.0.1.jar
Please note that I have not tested this, I know the jar is there but I haven't tried using it.

How to make maven use separate target folders for every version of program?

As example, i have program with version 0.0.1. Maven must create separate folder for it - "target/0.0.1/" instead of "target/". It must be done for version "0.0.2", "0.0.3", etc.
I use Eclipse & it's Maven:
Version: Oxygen.3a Release (4.7.3a)
Build id: 20180405-1200
JDK 1.8.0_172
Maven doesn't work that way, and trying to do something like that will lead to a path of suffering. Options I see include
Creating a separate assembly (and output Jar) for each version (see Maven Assembly Plugin)
Create a multi-project reactor with a separate output configuration for every project. Keep common code in one project that you link as dependency from the others. Possibly use the maven-shade-plugin to re-link the packages in your common project into the individual output projects
As you can see, both of these approaches are pretty hacky and require advanced Maven skills. It would be much easier to have parameterized builds where you pass in the output version. But that would make sense on a CI server like Jenkins.

Including .jar files in Github for consistency

I am new to using github and have been trying to figure out this question by looking at other people's repositories, but I cannot figure it out. When people fork/clone repositories in github to their local computers to develop on the project, is it expected that the cloned project is complete (ie. it has all of the files that it needs to run properly). For example, if I were to use a third-party library in the form of a .jar file, should I include that .jar file in the repository so that my code is ready to run when someone clones it, or is it better to just make a note that you are using such-and-such third-party libraries and the user will need to download those libraries elsewhere before they begin work. I am just trying to figure at the best practices for my code commits.
Thanks!
Basically it is as Chris said.
You should use a build system that has a package manager. This way you specify which dependencies you need and it downloads them automatically. Personally I have worked with maven and ant. So, here is my experience:
Apache Maven:
First word about maven, it is not a package manager. It is a build system. It just includes a package manager, because for java folks downloading the dependencies is part of the build process.
Maven comes with a nice set of defaults. This means you just use the archtype plugin to create a project ("mvn archetype:create" on the cli). Think of an archetype as a template for your project. You can choose what ever archetype suits your needs best. In case you use some framework, there is probably an archetype for it. Otherwise the simple-project archetype will be your choice. Afterwards your code goes to src/main/java, your test cases go to src/test/java and "mvn install" will build everything. Dependencies can be added to the pom in maven's dependency format. http://search.maven.org/ is the place to look for dependencies. If you find it there, you can simply copy the xml snippet to your pom.xml (which has been created by maven's archetype system for you).
In my experience, maven is the fastest way to get a project with dependencies and test execution set up. Also I never experienced that a maven build which worked on my machine failed somewhere else (except for computers which had year-old java versions). The charm is that maven's default lifecycle (or build cycle) covers all your needs. Also there are a lot of plugins for almost everything. However, you have a big problem if you want to do something that is not covered by maven's lifecycle. However, I only ever encountered that in mixed-language projects. As soon as you need anything but java, you're screwed.
Apache Ivy:
I've only ever used it together with Apache Ant. However, Ivy is a package manager, ant provides a build system. Ivy is integrated into ant as a plugin. While maven usually works out of the box, Ant requires you to write your build file manually. This allows for greater flexibility than maven, but comes with the prize of yet another file to write and maintain. Basically Ant files are as complicated as any source code, which means you should comment and document them. Otherwise you will not be able to maintain your build process later on.
Ivy itself is as easy as maven's dependency system. You have an xml file which defines your dependencies. As for maven, you can find the appropriate xml snippets on maven central http://search.maven.org/.
As a summary, I recommend Maven in case you have a simple Java Project. Ant is for cases where you need to do something special in your build.

Maven requires manual dependency update?

I'm new to Maven, using the m2e plugin for Eclipse. I'm still wrapping my head around Maven, but it seems like whenever I need to import a new library, like java.util.List, now I have to manually go through the hassle of finding the right repository for the jar and adding it to the dependencies in the POM. This seems like a major hassle, especially since some jars can't be found in public repositories, so they have to be uploaded into the local repository.
Am I missing something about Maven in Eclipse? Is there a way to automatically update the POM when Eclipse automatically imports a new library?
I'm trying to understand how using Maven saves time/effort...
You picked a bad example. Portions of the actual Java Library that come with the Java Standard Runtime are there regardless of Maven configuration.
With that in mind, if you wanted to add something external, say Log4j, then you would need to add a project dependency on Log4j. Maven would then take the dependency information and create a "signature" to search for, first in the local cache, and then in the external repositories.
Such a signature might look like
groupId:artifactId:version
or perhaps
groupId:artifactId:version:classifier
This identifies a maven "module" which will then be downloaded and configured into your system. Once in place it adds all of the classes within the module to your configured project.
Maven principally saves time in downloading and organizing JAR files in your build. By defining a "standard" project layout and a "standard" build order, Maven eliminates a lot of the guesswork in the "why isn't my project building" sweepstakes. Also, you can use neat commands like "mvn dependency:tree" to print out a list of all the JARs your project depends on, recursively.
Warning note: If you are using the M2E plugin and Eclipse, you may also run into problems with the plugin itself. The 1.0 version (hosted at eclipse.org) was much less friendly than the previous 0.12 version (hosted at Sonatype). You can get around this to some extent by downloading and installing the "standalone" version of Maven from apache (maven.apache.org) and running Maven from the command line. This is actually much more stable than trying to run Maven inside Eclipse (in my personal experience) and may save you some pain as you try to learn about Maven.

Help me understand making maven project w/ non-maven jar dependencies usable by others

I'm in the process of learning maven (and java packaging & distribution) with a new oss project I'm making as practice. Here's my situation, all java of course:
My main project is ProjectA, maven-based in a github repository. I have also created one utility project, maven-based, in github: ProjectB. ProjectA depends on a project I have heavily modified that originally was from a google-code ant-based repository, ProjectC.
So, how do I set up the build for ProjectA such that someone can download ProjectA.jar and use it without needing to install jars for ProjectB and ProjectC, and also how do I set up the build such that someone could check out ProjectA and run only 'mvn package' for a full compile?
(Additionally, what should I do with my modified version of ProjectC? include the class files directly into ProjectA, or fork the project into something that could then be used by as a maven dependency?)
I've been reading around, links such as this SO question and this SO question, but I'm unclear how those relate to my particular circumstance. So, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
So, how do I set up the build for ProjectA such that someone can download ProjectA.jar and use it without needing to install jars for ProjectB and ProjectC
Assuming ProjectA is a JAR, you can create an executable JAR that bundles the dependencies with the Maven Assembly Plugin (and the predefined jar-with-dependencies descriptor) or with the Maven Shade Plugin.
how do I set up the build such that someone could check out ProjectA and run only 'mvn package' for a full compile?
You have to deploy the dependencies to a repository that can be read over HTTP and to declare this repository in your pom.xml. AFAIK, git-hub doesn't offer any facility for that. But any web hosting service with FTP access (or better, scp) should do the trick. If your project is open source, another option would be to use Sonatype's OSS Repository Hosting service.
Just in case, you might want to read this blog post but you won't learn much more things.
The easiest would still be to organize the 3 projects as a multi-modules maven project and to build all modules.
Additionally, what should I do with my modified version of ProjectC?
From a modularization point of view (assuming you found a solution for the above part about repository), it would certainly make sense to have it as a separate module, especially if there is an opportunity someone can use ProjectC outside your project.
You have to publish the code from the additional dependencies. Two options:
Use the maven-shade-plugin to create a maven artifact containing all the content of the B and C jars, and publish that under your own G/A/V coordinates.
Publish copies of B and C under your own G/A/V coordinates using the maven-deploy-plugin to your forge just as you will publish your own code. Different forges have different policies; but if you abide by the licenses of B and C you should be OK.

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