ER: Minimal ojdeploy package for build servers

Question

Hi,
I'd love to see a minimal installation package that would install only what's required to run ojdeploy on a headless build server. Many development teams (if they're well organised :D) have a continuous integration server, which is often a headless Linux environment. I don't like the fact that to run a build requires a huge JDeveloper installation on your build environment - I think a smaller, ojdeploy-only type installation would be a great addition.
With the help of John Stegeman (and the JDevLibsForAnt plugin) I've gone the Ant route, but I think there are a number of complicating factors in the way JDeveloper manages project dependencies that cause real headaches for those attempting to create their own build scripts with Ant. Ultimately, I think using a standard tool to build and manage JDeveloper projects (Ant, Ivy, Maven, etc) needs to be made a lot easier. However if Oracle is going to prescribe ojdeploy as the only real option right now, I think it should be possible to use that tool without installing the entire, vast IDE.
Do those close to the ADF team have any thoughts on this?
Cheers!

Answer 1

Japher,
Having just completed the drafts of some OTN articles on things like ANT and Build servers, I have to say that I partially agree with you, but not completely. My goal was also to be able to have a build server that didn't require anything to be installed from the IDE. When the articles are published (should be soon), you'll see that it was quite a large amount of work to set up and manage. Maven could help here somewhat, but that support is in its infancy as well.
Given that configuring build servers is a relatively infrequent task, I'm now starting to shift my thinking. I ask myself, why not install JDeveloper on the build server? Even if I have to install 4 versions (note that there have been 4 releases so far of 11g), that's what, about an hour to install them and maybe 6-7GB of disk space? The benefits I get - not having to manage all those JDeveloper libraries, not having to figure out what goes in each WAR/EAR file, etc, etc. If I try to manage this myself, I would have to somehow manage all the different versions of the ADF libraries by either putting them in source control (and wow is it fun trying to upgrade JDeveloper if you take that approach ;) ) or do the same level of management in Maven, which is a bit easier, but Maven support in JDeveloper is just now emerging, and not quite ready for prime time without some additional work, as has been discussed here on this forum before.
Believe me, I fully understand your point of view, as I came from that same perspective myself. I am now moving my thinking along and thinking that ojdeploy is a really good way of doing things. Yes, if we can get a stripped down install without all of the other bits we don't need (i.e. a WLS server, GUI, etc) so much the better, so I think I agree with your original ER, namely, can we have a stripped-down JDeveloper install with just the bits needed to run ojdeploy on build servers - it's a nice-to-have thing, although it's not all that onerous in my opinion to have to install the full JDeveloper (by the way, on my laptop, I have every version of JDev from 10.1.3.2 to 11.1.1.2 installed, together with a few odd installs of the OA Framework as well).
So, although I agree with your ER, I don't agree that ojdeploy is only viable for very simple situations. I noted some bugs where ojdeploy didn't work properly in the very first 11g release, but I havent had the opportunity to check whether it is fixed in the latest release (see [url http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3878795]here)
Best,
John