eclipse-xtext / eclipse-xtext/xtext

Provide a "bom" for Maven Xtext dependencies

Open
#2,231 47 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
Java
Stars
831
Forks
330
Avg merge
3d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
12

Description

I was wondering if we should provide a "bom" for Maven dependencies used in Xtext Maven projects; this should only list dependencies in dependencyManagement section with the versions, and Maven projects could use something like

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.xtext</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.eclipse.xtext.maven.bom</artifactId>
            <version>XTEXT VERSION</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

This way, actual dependency versions should not be kept updated throughout all the Maven projects each time a new version is released, but only in the bom.

Not to mention that versions are hardcoded in poms generated by our wizards, like in the .ide project:

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>log4j</groupId>
			<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
			<version>1.2.16</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.eclipse.lsp4j</groupId>
			<artifactId>org.eclipse.lsp4j</artifactId>
			<version>0.2.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
			<artifactId>asm</artifactId>
			<version>5.0.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
			<artifactId>asm-commons</artifactId>
			<version>5.0.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
			<artifactId>asm-tree</artifactId>
			<version>5.0.1</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

and using deps from the same groupId forces to repeat the version consistently (like in the ow2.asm above).

The approach of the bom seems to be a success in projects like Spring and Spring Boot, for example.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by inspecting the Maven projects and wizard-generated .ide POMs mentioned in the issue, focusing on their dependencyManagement sections and repeated versions. Define the proposed org.eclipse.xtext.maven.bom artifact and verify that consuming projects can import it while centralizing the dependency versions.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
build-system
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.