How to build Spring Integration from the sources

This is a guide on setting up your machine for Spring Integration development. I've got questions about this many times so I thought it was time I put the answer where Google could see it. Let's say you want to create a patch for a bug in Spring Integration, or you want to run a test case to see how some component works. First you need to take that annoying hurdle of getting the project to build locally. You're going in the right direction, but you've missed some turns. If that sounds familiar, read on!

Before you go into the IDE part, make sure you have got the basics right. I can't stress this enough, if you can't get it to work from the command line you're doomed, no tool can help you. So the 5 first steps don't involve an IDE.

Prepare your system for Spring Integration development
0. Forget about your IDE and open up a terminal (on Windows there are some extra steps).

1. make sure you have a command line svn client (there are many installation procedures) the end result should be:
(master) iwein:si$ svn --version
svn, version 1.6.11 (r934486)
   compiled Apr 19 2010, 23:04:06
Any version later than 1.6 will do I think.

2. make sure you have the right version of Java:
(master) iwein:si$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_15"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_15-b03-219)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.1-b02-90, mixed mode)

This might be a bit confusing and I want to avoid the details, but you need to remember that Spring and also Spring Integration are compatible with Java 1.5, but the build is not necessarily. 1.6 is fine.

3. make sure you have the right version of Maven:
(master) iwein:elmar-trunk$ mvn -version
Maven version: 2.0.9
Java version: 1.6.0_15
OS name: "mac os x" version: "10.6" arch: "x86_64" Family: "mac"

Any 2.0.x version will do (except the ones with bugs :) ).

4. check out the trunk:
iwein:si-temp$ svn co https://src.springsource.org/svn/spring-integration/trunk/
This will give you a lot of output, but no errors.

5. Build the project:
iwein:si-temp$ cd trunk/
iwein:trunk$ mvn clean install
Again a lot of output, but no errors

6. Import the project in your IDE
Using the power of google you can find guides for:

• importing a maven project in IDEA
• using m2eclipse
• working with maven projects in NetBeans

It's a matter of taste how you do it, and if these fancy IDE's are not for you there is always vim. Point is that as long as you make sure everything works from the command line, the IDE support is just a convenience that you could live without (theoretically).

Other options
If you don't like Subversion, you can also use git. Make sure you have git and git-svn installed and then run:
git svn clone https://src.springsource.org/svn/spring-integration/trunk/ -r HEAD
If you don't know Subversion yet, I'd recommend this option.

If you are bored with Maven you could also check out the Spring Integration gradle build by Jeroen van Erp. Using a fork makes you dependent on Jeroen for porting commits on the Subversion HEAD, or your own merge skills, but the coolness of gradle might very well be worth it.

Let me know if you run into trouble or if you think I missed a step. Happy hacking!

Posted via email from iweinfuld's posterous