How To Increment Versions For Maven Build Java Project — Part 1

One of the ways to increment versions for a Maven build Java project.

In this article, I will be sharing one of the ways I have learned to increment versions for a Maven build Java project.

Before we start, let’s assume we have the following information in our pom.xml.

Reference: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weikangchia/increment-version-maven/master/pom.xml

The plugins that we will need are:

• org.codehaus.mojo:build-helper-maven-plugin A plugin to assist with the Maven build lifecycle
• org.codehaus.mojo:versions-maven-plugin A plugin to help manage the versions of artifacts in a project’s POM

Reference: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weikangchia/increment-version-maven/steps/1-add-plugins/pom.xml

Build Helper Maven Plugin

The Build Helper Maven plugin provides a goal, called the build-helper:parse-version. This goal parses a version string (default: ${project.version}) and set properties containing the component parts of the version.

[propertyPrefix].majorVersion
[propertyPrefix].minorVersion
[propertyPrefix].incrementalVersion
[propertyPrefix].qualifier
[propertyPrefix].buildNumber
[propertyPrefix].nextMajorVersion
[propertyPrefix].nextMinorVersion
[propertyPrefix].nextIncrementalVersion
[propertyPrefix].nextBuildNumber

FYI: The default value for the propertyPrefix is parsedVersion

The goal also set the following properties:

[formattedPropertyPrefix].majorVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].minorVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].incrementalVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].buildNumber
[formattedPropertyPrefix].nextMajorVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].nextMinorVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].nextIncrementalVersion
[formattedPropertyPrefix].nextBuildNumber

FYI: The default value for the formattedPropertyPrefix is formattedVersion

Now let’s try with an example:

mvn build-helper:parse-version help:effective-pom

In the output, we will see the following properties:

Bump A Patch Version

Format: ${parsedVersion.majorVersion}.${parsedVersion.minorVersion}.${parsedVersion.nextIncrementalVersion}

Output: 0.0.1

Bump A Minor Version

Format: ${parsedVersion.majorVersion}.${parsedVersion.minorVersion}.0

Output: 0.1.0

Bump A Major Version

Format: ${parsedVersion.majorVersion}.0.0

Output: 1.0.0

Versions Maven Plugin

The Versions Maven plugin provides a goal, called the versions:set. This goal sets the current project’s version and based on that change propagates that change onto any child modules as necessary.

Now let’s try with an example:

mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=0.0.1

In the output, we will see the following messages to inform us that it has been updated successfully.

You can now open your pom.xml and see that the project version has been updated to 0.0.1.

That’s it, we have all the ingredients, we can now put them together to increment versions for our Maven build Java project.

First, let’s update the Build Helper Maven plugin in the plugin section of our pom.xml.

Next, create 3 profiles to do the following:

• bump-patch This profile will be activated when given the property, bumpPatch
• bump-minor This profile will be activated when given the property, bumpMinor
• bump-major This profile will be activated when given the property, bumpMajor

Now let’s try out the 3 profiles that we have just created.

bumpPatch

mvn validate -DbumpPatch

Output:

bumpMinor

mvn validate -DbumpMinor

Output:

bumpMajor

mvn validate -DbumpMajor

Output:

And there we have it. I hope you have found this useful. Thank you for reading. You may find the complete pom.xml for this article from here.

Stay tuned for the next article, as I will show you how to increment a version that doesn’t follow the Semantic versioning (e.g. 1.0.0_1.0.0)✌️.

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