[Aperture-devel] Questions on Aperture Dependencies, Maven

[Keith R. B. <kbe...@bb...>]

All -

I'm working on a project that uses Maven for its build, distribution, =20
etc.  We want to use Aperture, so we need to create an aperture.pom =20
file that defines Aperture's dependencies and where to find them.  =20
Many of these dependencies are already in public Maven repositories.  =20
For those that are not, we will need to put them in our private =20
repository.  I'm hoping to come up with something that is general =20
enough so that any Aperture and Maven user can benefit from this.  =20
Then, the Aperture community can benefit, and we can benefit from the =20
scrutiny and support of that community.

For those files already in public repositories, we merely need to =20
specify their location (group, artifact ID, and version).

For those files not already in public repositories, we will need to =20
copy them to a private repository (either an organization's or a =20
user's repository).  I'm thinking of writing a shell script that takes =20
a Maven repository location as a parameter, and for each file in the =20
lib directory:

* copies it to the right place in the repository
* renames it according to Maven conventions (artifact_id-version, e.g. =20
myproject-2.1.jar)
* (possibly) generates the MD5 sum

----------------------

I've been examining the dependencies, and have some questions:

1) I tested building Aperture without each of the jar files in the lib =20
directory, and several were not needed for a successful build.  Are =20
there any of these that can be retired from the lib directory to =20
reduce the number of dependencies users need to have?  Or are they all =20
needed at runtime?  Here is the list:

activation-1.0.2-upd2.jar
applewrapper-0.2.jar
bcmail-jdk14-132.jar
bcprov-jdk14-132.jar
fontbox-0.1.0-dev.jar
infSail.jar
jcl104-over-slf4j-1.3.0.jar
unionSail.jar
winlaf-0.5.1.jar

2) There are some cases where the jar file used by Aperture seems to =20
be outdated or alpha/beta, and a newer version exists in Maven public =20
repositories.  (The public repository I examined was at =20
http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/.) The cases below show our library =20
name including its version and (to the best of my knowledge) the =20
corresponding up to date public Maven versions:

activation-1.0.2-upd2.jar --> 1.1
fontbox-0.1.0-dev.jar --> 0.1.0  (does dev=3D=3Dbeta here?)
org.apache.commons.codec_1.2.0.jar --> 1.3 (dated 11/2005)
org.apache.commons.httpclient_3.0.0.rc2.jar=09--> 3.1 (dated 8/2007)

3) I know that the Jacob software is used to parse Outlook files. The =20
existence of the Jacob DLL means to me that this Outlook parsing will =20
only work in Windows.  Is that correct?  Are there any other OS =20
dependencies in Aperture?  We're hoping that Aperture use and =20
functionality will be OS-independent.

4) We want to use Aperture only for document parsing; we don't need =20
its crawling functionality.  Some of the dependency jar files are used =20
only for crawling.  Have you ever considered splitting the crawling =20
and the parsing into separate artifacts to reduce the user's required =20
dependencies?  I presume you have, but found the cost to be =20
prohibitive, or your other users just don't need it.

If you've read this far, I owe you a drink. ;)  Seriously, I realize =20
this message is long and appreciate your attention.  Thanks for any =20
help you can offer.

Regards,
Keith Bennett