Upgrading flex-mojos 2.0.0 to flexmojos-maven-plugin 3.x

Note that I am not relying on the generic parent POM flexmojos-flex-super-pom for my builds as the builds are part of a bigger overall build and thus needs to inherit from different parents. In case you are using the super POM, you can skip the changes in the dependency management section.

New Repository

Finding the new repository was actually the hardest part. I still do not understand, why this is not better documented, especially since you cannot look in the examples to figure that out - you have to know it. Even googling did not help so I had to ask Marvin and he replied 6 minutes later. The repository URL has changed from http://svn.sonatype.org/flexmojos/repository  to http://repository.sonatype.org/content/groups/public.

So first change the repository entries in your pom files. Once for the dependencies

<repositories>

  <!-- ... -->

  <repository>
    <id>flex-mojos-repository</id>
      <url>http://repository.sonatype.org/content/groups/public</url>
      <releases>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
      </releases>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
      </snapshots>
  </repository>

  <!-- ... -->

</repositories>

and a second time for the plugins:

<pluginRepositories>

  <!-- ... -->

  <pluginRepository>
    <id>flex-mojos-repository</id>
    <url>http://repository.sonatype.org/content/groups/public</url>
    <releases>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
    </releases>
    <snapshots>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
    </snapshots>
  </pluginRepository>

  <!-- ... -->

</pluginRepositories>

New Plugin Artifact

The artifact group ID and artifact ID of plugin itself have also changed. Old artifact ID was info.flex-mojos:flex-compiler-mojo.

  <build>
    <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
    <sourceDirectory>src/main/flex</sourceDirectory>
    <testSourceDirectory>src/test/flex</testSourceDirectory>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.sonatype.flexmojos</groupId>
        <artifactId>flexmojos-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
        <extensions>true</extensions>
        <configuration>
          <includeSources>
            <param>${project.build.sourceDirectory}</param>
          </includeSources>
      </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

Note that I am also using a more maven style layout for my sources. All my sources are located in src/main/flex.

Also I am using the 3.1-SNAPSHOT version already. 3.1-SNAPSHOT compiles against Flex SDK 3.3, while the released 3.0.0 plugin compiles against Flex SDK 3.2. I haven't found any problems with 3.1-SNAPSHOT so far, but for release code you should consider the 3.0.0 plugin of course.

Dependency Management

Since I am not relying on the generic parent POM provided by Marvin I have to manage the versions of the Flex SDK dependencies on my own in a common parent POM, which is inherited by all child POMs that are building the actual SWF or SWC files.

The groupID of all artifacts have been changed from com.adobe.flex.sdk  to com.adobe.flex.framework. Then there are new artifacts for the resource bundles of the rpc and framework artifacts with a new type of rb.swc.

Here is the old version of the dependency management section.

<dependencyManagement>
   <dependencies>
      
      <!-- ... -->

      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>playerglobal</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
        <scope>external</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>flex</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
        <classifier>en_US</classifier>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>rpc</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>rpc</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
        <classifier>en_US</classifier>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.sdk</groupId>
        <artifactId>utilities</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0.3.0.0.477</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>

      <!-- ... -->

    </dependencies>
 </dependencyManagement>

And finally the new version, where the group IDs have been replaced by the new IDs and the old resource bundles have been replace with two new artifacts each:

  <dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
      
      <!-- ... -->

      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>playerglobal</artifactId>
        <version>9-3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>flex</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>rb.swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>rb.swc</type>
        <classifier>en_US</classifier>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>rpc</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>rpc</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>rb.swc</type>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>rpc</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>rb.swc</type>
        <classifier>en_US</classifier>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>utilities</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
        <type>swc</type>
      </dependency>

      <!-- ... -->

    </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>

This dependency management section is for the current 3.1 snapshot of the Flex Mojos plugin. For the released 3.0.0 version you have to replace the version 3.3.0.4852 with 3.2.0.3958. Also note the version of the playerglobal artifact. When you develop against a Flash player 9.x prefix it with "9-", prefix it with "10-" when developing for Flash player 10.x. In case you are using the 3.0.0 plugin specify a classifier containing 9 or 10 and remove the prefix to get clean transitive dependencies.

Dependencies

Finally in the child POMs you have to change the group IDs of all the dependencies contained in the <dependency> section from com.adobe.flex.sdk to com.adobe.flex.framework and introduce the new resource bundle artifacts for rpc and framework wherever you reference these artifacts as seen in the new dependency management section above in lines 24 to 36 and 43 to 55 (don't forget to remove the version tags in your child POMs).

That's it. When you haven't forgotten to change any reference to a dependency the next build should be able to download all required artifacts and you Flex application will be build against the latest SDK.

Some Tips

After I wrote this article I posted it on the flex-mojos google group and received some tips on how to manage the dependencies more nicely.

In case you don't care having some more dependencies but want a much shorter and cleaner POM file Marvins Tip might be the one to go. Simply replace all the individual flex dependencies by just one entry:

      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.framework</groupId>
        <artifactId>flex-framework</artifactId>
        <type>pom</type>
        <version>3.3.0.4852</version>
      </dependency>

Repeat this section omitting the version in your child POMs. In addition to the section listed above this adds the following dependencies:

• applicationupdater-3.3.0.4852.swc
  
• applicationupdater_ui-3.3.0.4852.swc
  
• framework-3.3.0.4852-configs.zip  
  

So this might not be your desired approach in case you want to manage dependencies very tightly. In some cases you can even shorten the full list from above e.g. when you don't require the rpc package. In other cases you cannot do that at all, e.g. when you want to load framework libraries as cached RSLs.

A more general tip was provided by Davis Ford, who suggested to define a maven property for the version, so that you do not have to repeat the same version for each artifact. Add a section like the following to your pom:

<properties>
  <flex-version>3.3.0.4852</flex-version>
 </properties> 

After that you can simply use <version>${flex-version}</version> for all your artifacts and can switch the version just by changing it at one location.