NMaven 0.4.0

NMaven

NMaven is a package containing a MSBuild task allowing to download maven artifact at build time.

The aim of this tool is to automate the retrieval of files (XSD files for example) from maven artifacts. Each maven artifact referenced in a project will be downloaded into a .nmvn folder, next to the .nuget folder, and following the same rules. Then, by defining some deployment rules, some files contained in the downloaded artifacts will be copied to your project.

How to use

1. Install the NMaven NuGet package to add to your project the required tools:

dotnet add package NMaven

2. Add the following items in your csproj:

<ItemGroup>
    <MavenRepository Include="Repository" Url="https://path.to.your/repository" Username="optional-username" Password="optional-password" />
    <MavenReference Include="artifact-id" GroupId="group.id" Version="X.Y.Z.R" />
    <NMavenDeployment Include="DeploymentRule" ArtifactId="artifact-id" Files="path/to/file.ext" Destination="Destination/Folder" />
</ItemGroup>

You can add as many of each item as required. Especially, you can add several deployment rules for the same artifact as long as the NMavenDeployment.ArtifactId metadata references an existing MavenReference.Include.

If username and password are provided, they will be used to authenticate against the repository using basic scheme. If not, the repository will be accessed anonymously.

3. Don't forget to add the deployed file(s) to your .gitignore since they will be deployed at each build.

MavenReference rules

Optional parameter Classifier (default ``) can be set to any string value. It will happen the classifier to the download url.

Optional parameter Type (default jar) can be set to any string value. It will change the extension of the file in the download url.

NMavenDeployment rules

The Files metadata is used to select the files to deploy to the project from within the jar file. This selector relies on the DirectoryInfo.GetFiles(string searchPattern, SearchOption option) method, with SearchOption.AllDirectories passed.

The Destination metadata simply indicates the destination folder within the .NET project.

Optional parameter PreserveFolderStructure (default false) can be set to true to preserve the folder structure of the files within the jar file during deployment.

Optional parameter RemoveRelativePath (default false) can be set to true to remove the relative in relation to Files path of the files within the jar file during deployment. Value is ignored if PreserveFolderStructure is not used.

NMaven.Example

Take a look at the NMaven.Example project for a working example.

This app simply references an arbitrary artifact and display its MANIFEST.LF file in the console.