Jenkins Plugin Dev Cookbook

To develop/build the GForge Publisher plugin, you'll need:

• OS of choice: Ubuntu (I used Ubuntu because it's easy to set up)
• Eclipse (latest release for java developers is fine)
• JRE (obviously)
• Maven
• Updated source code of the plugin is in the SVN repo in the Hudson project on gforge.com

Notes:

1. You'll also need to add the external references needed in the classpath
2. See attached maven configuration (XML file). 

How to build the plugin:

1. Import the project into your eclipse workspace
2. Build normally as any java project
3. Package with maven to create the hpi file (jenkins plugin extension, which is basically a zip file with a specified directory structure inside)
4. To package using maven, run  mvn package from the project dir.
5. You will also need the package to contain the referenced libraries, so run the  release.sh script included in the project. This script takes care of everything.
6. There's a file that needs to be added to the resulting package.  To do so, unzip a previous version of the hpi file, and copy the
   WEB-INF / classes / META-INF / annotations directory to the new build you made.  Then zip again the whole package and set the extension as .hpi (as it originally was)
7. Now you have a Jenkins installable plugin

Note: You must include the annotations directory and content, or the config options for the plugin won't show up in Jenkins.  

Helpful Links

• How to install Jenkins on ubuntu: https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Installing+Jenkins+on+Ubuntu
• How to convert maven project into eclipse project: http://www.mkyong.com/maven/how-to-convert-maven-java-project-to-support-eclipse-ide/
• How to create a plugin (pay attention to the section on installing / setting up Maven): https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Plugin+tutorial