A large software application generally consists of multiple modules and it is common scenario where multiple teams are working on different modules of same application. For example, consider a team is working on the front end of the application as app-ui project (app-ui.jar:1.0) and they are using data-service project (data-service.jar:1.0).

Now it may happen that team working on data-service is undergoing bug fixing or enhancements at rapid pace and they are releasing the library to remote repository almost every other day.

Now if data-service team uploads a new version every other day, then following problems will arise −

• data-service team should tell app-ui team every time when they have released an updated code.

• app-ui team required to update their pom.xml regularly to get the updated version.

To handle such kind of situation, SNAPSHOT concept comes into play.

What is SNAPSHOT?

SNAPSHOT is a special version that indicates a current development copy. Unlike regular versions, Maven checks for a new SNAPSHOT version in a remote repository for every build.

Now data-service team will release SNAPSHOT of its updated code every time to repository, say data-service: 1.0-SNAPSHOT, replacing an older SNAPSHOT jar.

Snapshot vs Version

In case of Version, if Maven once downloaded the mentioned version, say data-service:1.0, it will never try to download a newer 1.0 available in repository. To download the updated code, data-service version is be upgraded to 1.1.

In case of SNAPSHOT, Maven will automatically fetch the latest SNAPSHOT (data-service:1.0-SNAPSHOT) every time app-ui team build their project.

app-ui pom.xml

app-ui project is using 1.0-SNAPSHOT of data-service.

<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
   http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>app-ui</groupId>
   <artifactId>app-ui</artifactId>
   <version>1.0</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <name>health</name>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
   <properties>
      <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
      <groupId>data-service</groupId>
         <artifactId>data-service</artifactId>
         <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
</project>

data-service pom.xml

data-service project is releasing 1.0-SNAPSHOT for every minor change.

<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
   http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>data-service</groupId>
   <artifactId>data-service</artifactId>
   <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <name>health</name>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
   <properties>
      <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
</project>

Although, in case of SNAPSHOT, Maven automatically fetches the latest SNAPSHOT on daily basis, you can force maven to download latest snapshot build using -U switch to any maven command.

mvn clean package -U

Let”s open the command console, go to the C: > MVN > app-ui directory and execute the following mvn command.

C:MVNapp-ui>mvn clean package -U

Maven will start building the project after downloading the latest SNAPSHOT of data-service.

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]--------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building consumerBanking
[INFO]    task-segment: [clean, package]
[INFO]--------------------------------------------
[INFO] Downloading data-service:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] 290K downloaded.
[INFO] [clean:clean {execution: default-clean}]
[INFO] Deleting directory C:MVNapp-uitarget
[INFO] [resources:resources {execution: default-resources}]

[WARNING] Using platform encoding (Cp1252 actually) to copy filtered resources,
i.e. build is platform dependent!

[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory C:MVNapp-uisrcmainresources
[INFO] [compiler:compile {execution:default-compile}]
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to C:MVNapp-uitargetclasses
[INFO] [resources:testResources {execution: default-testResources}]

[WARNING] Using platform encoding (Cp1252 actually) to copy filtered resources,
i.e. build is platform dependent!

[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory C:MVNapp-uisrctestresources
[INFO] [compiler:testCompile {execution: default-testCompile}]
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to C:MVNapp-uitargettest-classes
[INFO] [surefire:test {execution: default-test}]
[INFO] Surefire report directory: C:MVNapp-uitarget
surefire-reports

--------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
--------------------------------------------------

Running com.companyname.bank.AppTest
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.027 sec

Results :

Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

[INFO] [jar:jar {execution: default-jar}]
[INFO] Building jar: C:MVNapp-uitarget
app-ui-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
[INFO]--------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO]--------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 2 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: 2015-09-27T12:30:02+05:30
[INFO] Final Memory: 16M/89M
[INFO]------------------------------------------------------------------------