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After struggling a bit too much with the maven-release-plugin under Apache Maven 2.0.9 and hierachical projects, I was finally able to release full support for Maven based Alfresco ECM lifecycle.

As I was mentioning in previous post, despite being one of the best piece of software I’ve worked on, Alfresco still lacks a lot in Enterprise ready delivery of its customizations, providing solutions based on Ant and custom tools like the Alfresco Module Management Tool which does not really fit in environments where control over versions, complex interdependent grids of applications are deployed on top of Alfresco, or simply when you not willing to perfom the (typically open source related) web googling-crawling to make that damn thing work.

In this sense I developed, based on successful internal Sourcesense and end customers implementations, a full support for Maven based Alfresco customizations. It’s documented in the Alfresco wiki, but basically comprise:

• A maven-alfresco-extension-archetype which allows creation of a custom build of Alfresco community/enterprise,  basically producing a WAR as main build artifact, storing all customization in the alfresco/extension folder (Convention Over Configuration). All dependent AMPs (yes, we support AMP dependencies ) are included in the WAR. Typical usage scenario is the main Enterprise Alfresco build which includes base configuration settings (e.g. db, alf_data, custom model) then can include many satellite modules (AMPs produced by the maven-alfresco-amp-archetype)
• A maven-alfresco-amp-archetype which allows creation of an Alfresco compatible custom AMP (Alfresco Module Package) .  basically producing a .amp  as main build artifact. The produced AMP is configured in the alfresco/modules/{pom.groupId}.{pom.artifactId} without requiring manual developer synchronization between module name and POM properties.
• A maven-amp-plugin providing support for .amp files lifecycle, handling archiving, unarchiving, dependencies, install and deployment on enteprise repos

Cool features which you may find handy as a developer are

• One commad creation of archetype from remote Sourcesense repositories (only maven 2.0.9 installed is required)
• maven-jetty-plugin embedded run for integration testing,
• environment dependent and single sourcing of application properties,
• jboss/tomcat local/remote deployment with Cargo
• Easy integration with other opensource frameworks due to wide Maven support

while as an enterprise release manager you could appreciate

• Maven documentation site integrated development and deployment
• Maven easy one command release with the maven-release-plugin, providing also release announcement facilities
• Application manual generation with Doxia
• Possibility of using enterprise Super POM for centralizing control Alfresco and other libraries versions

Hopefully it can really gear contributions on Alfresco and grow it to the open source mature development process we try to deliver every day: and be careful, this is not only a Sourcesense marketing ad, but an approach already proof to be a development booster  on my project on a day by day basis since almost a year. And considering Alfresco 3.0 will be fairly modular, I think Maven has a point.

Give it a spin and let me know…

Issues are always welcome

After more than five months, I went back to the beloved mother Italy, for both business and homesickness reasons.
After 4 days spent in Milan for the Advanced JBoss training for J2EE developers (which was interesting but not outstanding, considering the quite out of date material and the basic nature of the course), I ran to Rome on Friday 6th in order to see my friends and my parents. Brief parenthesis here, thanks to Trenitalia for raising the Rome-Milan Eurostar ticket of 10€ in less than 2 years. Impressive €uro effects…


But apart from that and from the typical good weather and mom’s food which keep on being the most important roots that bring me back to my country, I was able to join one of the most crazy private parties in Rome which I can remember: have to say that living in Amsterdam, wild parties are pretty common, but I found quite difficult to have the same level of fun (maybe directly correlated to the level of beer) and empathy between people in parties in Rome.


Well, it’s the second year in a row I join these kind of parties (organized by friends of mine which I know since the times of Scarpetteria ): last year it was basically a Pimps and Hookers theme party in which we (me and Mau) masqueraded ourselves with pretty cool results, while this year, supported by all kind of social networking marketing campaigns , the Ancient Roman theme party Baccanalia party had its birth…


And what a successful birth considering that I ended up as you can see in the photo below (ok, heart shaped glasses are not really latin style but they are SO COOL … and they allow me to meet such cool photographers PS: well, for those who did not notice before, I cut my dreadlocks

Since almost one year I’m involved in Alfresco ECM huge architectures design, and considering my expertise in open source communities, I’m now at the level of being able to give a clear statement on which are the aspects (not in the Alfresco meaning in which this GREAT product still lacks, especially in terms of open source maturity and scalable community / enterprise application lifecycle support.

My past experiences with open source communities and frameworks like Apache Cocoon , recently released 2.2 version with features like complete springification but most important (to me) the full m10n (mavenization, from Apache Maven), taught me that even the most genius idea, the best architectural pattern or the killer app, will NOT have the desired penetration and adoption (and expected ROI, if you think about enterprise backed open source) if not properly backed by a solid foundation which can (at least) provide the following high level features (among many others which I consider as derivatives):

• Easy inter-component and intra-component reuse gearing best practices
• Centralized and standardized component management and definition
• Fast project startup and (fast if not “hot”) develop-test-commit cycle

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The few fellow readers (or just occasional surfers as Google Analytics cleverly notifies me) of this blog may have worried about my health, knowing how social and verbose I am, when seeing this blog silent for more than one year. Not that before this was the most active blog ever, but almost 15 months of silence, well, that’s sound kind of rude to the whole social revolution I’m taking part in.
Especially because it’s in the last 12 months that the biggest change in my life happened, both on the personal side with relocation to Amsterdam, working for Sourcesense Netherlands, and on the professional side in which I grew enormously to the role of Alfresco ECM Architect.

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Hi guys…
a server migration is undergoing with old (few actually posts…coping with conferences and work, I hope that this blog will find a new shiny life ASAP.

TTYL!

Gab