Spring Roo and Maven issues converting an existing project

It seems Spring Roo has some issues taking an existing Maven project and converting it to a Roo project, even if the imported project has nothing more than skeleton src folder structure and a vanilla pom.xml file.

Trying to update the project’s config via the Maven plugin in also gives odd errors:

Problems encountered while setting the problem description

Trying to use Roo to get started with the existing project to add your persistence setup gives errors about missing config in your pom.xml:

roo> persistence setup --database MYSQL --provider HIBERNATE 
additionalBuildcommands element of the maven-eclipse-plugin required

I think the main issue is if you take an existing source and then convert it to an Eclipse project with ‘mvn eclipse:eclipse’ – this seems to the be starting point for the issues, as you end up with Eclipse .project and .classpath files configured differently from what Roo + STS is expecting.

I created an empty new Roo project to look at what changes you’d need to do by hand to get this fixed up, and it looks like you need to copy across the following to your existing project:

.project:

	<buildSpec>
		<buildCommand>
			<name>org.eclipse.ajdt.core.ajbuilder</name>
			<arguments>
			</arguments>
		</buildCommand>
		<buildCommand>
			<name>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</name>
			<arguments>
			</arguments>
		</buildCommand>
		<buildCommand>
			<name>org.eclipse.m2e.core.maven2Builder</name>
			<arguments>
			</arguments>
		</buildCommand>
	</buildSpec>
	<natures>
		<nature>org.eclipse.m2e.core.maven2Nature</nature>
		<nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature>
		<nature>org.eclipse.ajdt.ui.ajnature</nature>
		<nature>com.springsource.sts.roo.core.nature</nature>
		<nature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</nature>
	</natures>

Maven pom.xml file changes:

    <properties>
        <roo.version>1.1.5.RELEASE</roo.version>
        <spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
        <aspectj.version>1.6.11</aspectj.version>
        <slf4j.version>1.6.1</slf4j.version>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

Repo and plugin in repo settings:

    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>spring-maven-release</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Release Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/release</url>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <id>spring-maven-milestone</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Milestone Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/milestone</url>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <id>spring-roo-repository</id>
            <name>Spring Roo Repository</name>
            <url>http://spring-roo-repository.springsource.org/release</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
    <pluginRepositories>
        <pluginRepository>
            <id>spring-maven-release</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Release Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/release</url>
        </pluginRepository>
        <pluginRepository>
            <id>spring-maven-milestone</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Milestone Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/milestone</url>
        </pluginRepository>
        <pluginRepository>
            <id>spring-roo-repository</id>
            <name>Spring Roo Repository</name>
            <url>http://spring-roo-repository.springsource.org/release</url>
        </pluginRepository>
    </pluginRepositories>

Dependencies:

    <dependencies>
        <!-- General dependencies for standard applications -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.8.2</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
            <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
            <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.sf.flexjson</groupId>
            <artifactId>flexjson</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- ROO dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.roo</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.springframework.roo.annotations</artifactId>
            <version>${roo.version}</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Spring dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

Build section:

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.1.1</version>
                <!-- <configuration> <webXml>target/web.xml</webXml> </configuration> -->
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.2</version> <!-- NB: do use 1.3 or 1.3.x due to MASPECTJ-90 - wait for 1.4 -->
                <dependencies>
                    <!-- NB: You must use Maven 2.0.9 or above or these are ignored (see MNG-2972) -->
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
                        <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjtools</artifactId>
                        <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>compile</goal>
                            <goal>test-compile</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <outxml>true</outxml>
                    <aspectLibraries>
                        <aspectLibrary>
                            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                            <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
                        </aspectLibrary>
                    </aspectLibraries>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.5</version>
                <configuration>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.8</version>
                <configuration>
                    <printSummary>false</printSummary>
                    <redirectTestOutputToFile>true</redirectTestOutputToFile>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>**/*_Roo_*</exclude>
                    </excludes>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.2.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <descriptorRefs>
                        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                    </descriptorRefs>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.6</version>
            </plugin>
            <!-- IDE -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.7</version>  <!-- Note 2.8 does not work with AspectJ aspect path -->
                <configuration>
                    <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                    <downloadJavadocs>false</downloadJavadocs>
                    <wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
                    <additionalBuildcommands>
                        <buildCommand>
                            <name>org.eclipse.ajdt.core.ajbuilder</name>
                            <arguments>
                                <aspectPath>org.springframework.aspects</aspectPath>
                            </arguments>
                        </buildCommand>
                        <buildCommand>
                            <name>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</name>
                        </buildCommand>
                    </additionalBuildcommands>
                    <additionalProjectnatures>
                        <projectnature>org.eclipse.ajdt.ui.ajnature</projectnature>
                        <projectnature>com.springsource.sts.roo.core.nature</projectnature>
                        <projectnature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</projectnature>
                    </additionalProjectnatures>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-idea-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                    <dependenciesAsLibraries>true</dependenciesAsLibraries>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.1</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
                <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>7.4.2.v20110526</version>
                <configuration>
                    <webAppConfig>
                        <contextPath>/${project.name}</contextPath>
                    </webAppConfig>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

One last step: copy across a blank applicationContext.xml file from an empty Roo project – if you don’t, when you issue Roo commands it looks for the file expecting it to already exist.

There’s notes here on how to convert an existing project to Roo, though it’s more like some suggestions than actual steps.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.