Track every Build Number with Maven

Problem

You need to differentiate between build numbers. For example, you’ve just redeployed your application and need to ensure that the new version is what you are viewing. Or, you need to keep track of how many times you build. There could be many reasons why you want to know the build number that you are on. I use it for reporting bugs against specific builds.

Solution

maven-buildnumber-plugin. This Maven2 plugin will generate a unique build number each time your build your project. You can even configure which maven phase triggers the increment of the number. This plugin can also fetch data from SVN to ensure that a team of developers all get unique build numbers.

As a bonus, it generates a buildNumber.properties file so that you can read in this build number from anywhere in your project. Here is how I use the plugin.

First, update your pom.xml. You need to setup the build trigger.


<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
      <artifactId>buildnumber-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>1.0-beta-3</version>
      <executions>
        <execution>
          <phase>validate</phase>
          <goals>
            <goal>create</goal>
          </goals>
        </execution>
      </executions>
      <configuration>
        <doCheck>true</doCheck>
        <doUpdate>false</doUpdate>
        <format>${version}.{0,number}</format>
        <items>
          <item>buildNumber0</item>
        </items>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>





Now, you’ll need the build number and append it to your artifact’s final name. Add this to your pom.xml

<build>
  <finalName>
    ${project.artifactId}-${project.version}.{buildNumber}
  </finalName>
</build>

Now you’re package goal will output a file named

projectname-1.0.1.war

This is a great start and now you can differentiate each and every build. However, I need to take this a step further.

I need to see the version on my application’s index page. To do this, I use an ant filter to write the version and timestamp to a version.html file, and then copy it to my project’ web app directory. Add this to your pom.xm.

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
      <executions>
        <execution>
          <phase>compile</phase>
          <configuration>
            <tasks>
              <!-- versioning -->
              <echo message="[build version]"/>
              <delete file="target/projectname/version.html"/>
              <tstamp>
                <format property="rightNow" pattern="d MMM yyyy" locale="en"/>
              </tstamp>
              <copy todir="target/projectname">
                <fileset dir="src/main/webapp">
                  <include name="version.html"/>
                </fileset>
                <filterset>
                  <filter token="VERSION" value="${buildNumber}"/>
                  <filter token="BUILTON" value="${rightNow}"/>
                </filterset>
              </copy>
              <echo message=" version is ${buildNumber}"/>
            </tasks>
          </configuration>
          <goals>
            <goal>run</goal>
          </goals>
        </execution>
      </executions>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Version.html is simple.

<p class="version">Version: @VERSION@</p>
<p class="built">Built on: @BUILTON@</p>

Finally, in my index page…

<jsp:include page="/version.html"/>

Almost everything you want to know about this plugin can be found on the plugin’s site: http://mojo.codehaus.org/buildnumber-maven-plugin/

Alternatives

As an alternative to writing and importing version.html, you can read buildNumber.properties in an MVC controller and put the version in your page model. This is what I for my login pages. I use a java class to read the build number, format it, and cache it. I start the first build number at 00100, then format that to 0.1.0. So the next build is 00101 which gets displayed as 0.1.1.

Update:Tips

Here is a usage tip. You can move the create goal into a build profile so that the build number only increments in specific situations. I use a profile for my Continuous Integration builds so that our version increments only when Hudson builds our apps. This also makes it possible to synchronize our Hudson build numbers to our module versions.

Feedback

What do you use to track build numbers? How do your format it?

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October 9, 2010 | Filed Under Software Tools, java, maven | 8 Comments 

Strange Loop 2009 – Day 2

My notes and thoughts about day two of strange loop 2009.

Also be sure to check out my Day one notes.

jQuery – Matt Taylor

Mobile Development 101

Entrepreneur Talk – Panel Discussion

Polyglot Grails – Jeff Brown

Minimalism – Alex Payne

List of slides on strangeloop.com
Day two sessions

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October 25, 2009 | Filed Under java, open source | 2 Comments 

Strange Loop 2009 – Day 1

A new developer conference has started in St Louis this year named Strange Loop. Normally I don’t go to developer conferences because they are either in a different country or on the coasts. This one was close by in St Louis, MO. And from the quality of speakers and diverse sessions I predict next years conference will sell out very quickly unless they increase the capacity. Below are my overall topics/themes I took away from the conference and some interesting points from each talk I witnessed along with links to the speaker’s site and slide show if available.


Day two

Strange Loop Thoughts Overall

Functional Ruby – Dean Wampler

Polyglot Programming – Dean Wampler

Griffon (Swing just got fun again) – James Williams

Future of Java – Bob Lee



Day two


Day One Sessions

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October 24, 2009 | Filed Under java, open source | 2 Comments 

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