If you have any questions or feedback, we encourage you to send email to book@sonatype.com. If you have any problems to report, please include the section number and the type of mobile device you are reading this book on. This book has been tested on iPad, iPhone, Sony Reader library and the Adobe Digital Edition reader.

If you are new to Maven, don’t forget to check out Nexus Open Source and Nexus Professional. If you develop with Maven, you should be using Nexus. Once you start using a Repository Manager, you won’t believe you ever developed without one.

Update: The epub version of this book has been deprecated, since current mobile devices all display pdf formats easily and the epub version had very limited users, while requiring a lot of maintenance. The links on this article have been changed to point to the books site.

This release has been tested on Apple’s iBook on both an iPad and iPhone and in the Adobe Digital Editions reader. To read this book on an iPad or iPhone: install the latest version of iTunes, download the ePub from Sonatype, and import the file using “Add to Library…” from the File menu.

We would appreciate any feedback you might have about formatting and layout. If you have questions, comments, or problem reports about our ePub books, send an email to book@sonatype.com. If you are reporting a typo or a problem with our ePub books, please make sure to include the device and software you are using as well as the section number, as page counts can vary depending on text size and device layout.

Stay tuned for “Maven: The Complete Reference” in an ePub format.

Update: The epub version of this book has been deprecated, since current mobile devices all display pdf formats easily and the epub version had very limited users, while requiring a lot of maintenance . The links on this article have been changed to point to the books site.

The current ePub file weighs in at 16 MB, and it contains all of the content from the online and PDF version of the book. eBook readers are a constantly moving target, from large format readers like the Kindle, Sony Reader, and iPad to smaller mobile platforms like Android and iPhone, and there is wide variation in how ePub readers interpret CSS and format text.

While we’ve done some basic initial testing to make sure that content is readable, there are still going to be some issues with code line width and figure sizes. We’re looking for feedback on usability. If you download this epub, take some time to let us know at book@sonatype.com. Let us know: what device you were using, if you find code listings to be unusable due to width limitations, if you able to view all of the figures. We’re especially interested in feedback from people viewing this content on an iPad.

We’ve tested this book on the Sony Reader emulator and in the Adode Digital Editions reader. As you can see, there are going to be some issues with figure width. Wide figures may be truncated on the Sony Reader and other eBook readers. We continuing to investigate strategies for creating smaller, eBook-friendly versions of book figures.

Special thanks to Brian Jackson for taking the initiative to fork the Nexus Book git repository and add support for epub. In the process of adding this epub support, Brian also submitted some patches to the docbkx-maven-plugin.

The latest edition of Repository Management with Nexus, Edition 2.1, has been released. This edition includes new content about Nexus 1.5.0 Open Source and Enterprise LDAP. Edition 2.1 also contains almost 100 corrections which were driven by the community.

• Read the Book for FREE online,
• Download the Repository Managment with Nexus PDF,
• Purchase a Printed Copy for $20.06 from Lulu, or
• Read the Book on Scribd

The following changes were introduced in Edition 2.1 in February, 2010:

The following individuals provided valuable feedback resulting in fixes and changes in Edition 2.1:

The latest edition of Maven: The Complete Reference, Edition 0.4, has been released. This edition updates the Flexmojos chapter to the latest FlexMojos 3.5.0 release and refreshes information about Flexmojos archetypes. We added an initial version of a chapter by Manfred Moser that walks through the process of using Maven to build Android applications. In addition to that we fixed some minor issues throughout the book that had been reported by the community.

• Read the Book for FREE online,
• Download the Maven: The Complete Reference PDF,
• Purchase a Printed Copy for $19.86 from Lulu, or
• Read the Book on Scribd

A full list of changes in Edition 0.4:

The following contributors provided invaluable feedback and contributions:

This book is top quality and free: what can I say? If you’re a beginner in Maven, you’ll find a real stable base to learn from. If you need to update your knowledge, you will find a wealth of information. If you’re a Maven guru, please contribute to the Assembly plugin’s chapter. I can only give a warm thank you for Sonatype’s effort for giving this quality book to the community.

To read the entire review, click here. He also liked the appendix we included that lists open source alternatives to artifacts not published in the public repository (although more and more and being published every month):

A very interesting point is a list of some (all?) JEE API released by the Geronimo project and referenced by groupId and artifactId. If you frown because the point is lost on you, just try using classes from activation.jar (javax.activation:activation): you’ll never be able to let Maven download it for you since it is not available in the first place for licensing reasons. Having an alternative from Geronimo is good, knowing what is available thanks to the book is better

To read our collection of free books, go to http://books.sonatype.com.

Frankel’s Main Criticism

He’s spot on in his main criticism – the Maven Assembly chapter is both mysterious and impenetrable. While it does provide some reference, if you read it from start to finish you almost end up knowing a bit less than you did when you started. Based on his feedback, and the feedback of many others, we’re going to take some time over the next quarter to rewrite this chapter. It needs to be more focused on common use cases. The current chapter gets into too much “nitty gritty”.

We heard you loud and clear, and I just created a JIRA issue: “Rewrite the Assemblies Chapter… No one can read it”

He Makes a Call for Participation in his Conclusion

He concludes the review by asking people to contribute and fix the assembly plugin. This is in line with the whole “book as an open source project” idea. When we started this project it was one or two people working on a closed-source book. As it solidified we opened up the source and made sure that it had a public Github and JIRA project devoted to it. Now that the book is mature, we’ve attracted more contributors (several of which I will introduce in the coming days), and we’re starting to see some interest from others in participating.

If you are interested in contributing, or even in participating in the discussions. Take a look at our:

• JIRA Projects on http://issues.sonatype.org
• GitHub projects on http://github.com/sonatype

Maven: The Definitive Guide has been split into two separate books: Maven by Example and Maven: The Complete Reference. The original book had two parts: an example-driven section and a more “referency” section, and each of these sections is now being developed as a separate book. We did this for a number of reasons, but the most important was the idea that a good book has an ideal number of pages. A good introduction should weigh in at around 250 while a more complete reference might easily exceed 400 pages. With this change, we have more than enough room to grow both books over the coming months.

The following books are Part I and Part II of the old definitive guide:

• Maven by Example – This book is an example-driven introduction. If you are new to Maven, read this book first. It will introduce all of the basics and take you all the way up to a multi-module enterprise project.
• Maven: The Complete Reference – Novice or expert, this book will quickly become a dog-eared reference. This book covers topics in depth, including: build properties, the project object model, and other essential aspects of Maven.

If you’ve bookmarked our book, the existing links will continue to work, but they will automatically redirect to the appropriate book.

DE and ZH Translations

The Chinese and German translations of the book are still combined into a single, two-part book. As we continue to develop the content these translated titles will also be split into two books. In the meantime, enjoy:

• Read the German Translation
• Read the Chinese Translation

OR

Download the German translation of “Maven: The Definitive Guide” as a PDF.

• Maven Mythbusters #1 – Maven automatically updates for every build
• Maven Mythbusters #2 – Maven requires an internet connection to delete a directory

These are important articles for you to read if you have been responsible for introducing Maven into a new environment.   Invariably, every time you introduce Maven somewhere new, you’ll meet up with people echoing some of these myths.   The idea that Maven takes seven minutes to run the Clean plugin, or that Maven requires internet access is nothing more than FUD, and John Smart is doing a good job dismantling these myths.   Read these posts on John Smart’s blog.

A Review of Maven By Example

In other news, John Yeary has been diving into Maven by Example.  John writes of the book:

This turned out to be a really good book on learning Maven. It is a Creative Commons licensed book so that it offers the community a chance to update the book and add content. Like any great open source project, giving the community to have a direct chance to update the project produces a better final product.

Even better than that, John found some issues in Chapter 7 and he’s taken the time to start reporting issues.   This is just the sort of involved community we had in mind when we decided to release the books as a free project.    John has already reported typos and errors in the Nexus book which were addressed in the last two editions of the Nexus book.   We’re happy that John liked the book, and we’re also happy that he’s taking the time to help us improve it.  Thanks.

I sent John a shipment of Maven and Nexus books in December as part of our effort to get the word out to the community.  If you run a JUG or related technical user group.  Get in touch with us by sending an email to book@sonatype.com.  We’re very interested in helping to support to communities that use Maven and Nexus.  Let us know how we can help.

For a list of changes in Edition 2.0.1, please see the release notes for this edition in the Nexus book.

• Read the Book for FREE online,
• Download the Nexus Book PDF, or
• Read the Book on Scribd

Repository Management with Sonatype Nexus

For a list of changes in Edition 2.0, please see the release notes for this edition in the Nexus book.

• Read the Book for FREE online,
• Download the Nexus Book PDF, or
• Read the Book on Scribd

Special thanks to John Yeary and Anders Hammar for providing essential feedback and for identifying typos and errors.

Repository Management with Sonatype Nexus