architecture-rules-2.1.0 released
Architecture Rules announces today that version 2.1.0 is released.
This was a fun release for two reasons: the new features, and the timing of the release.
Features
This was a major release in that it finally allows the users to define packages with wildcards. We’ve had a handful of users asking for this functionality for a while. We thank them for sticking with us despite having to ask us for this feature a few times. Read about how we implemented wildcards, how to use them, and some open issues with them on our previous post If You’re Feelin’ like a Pimp go on Brush your Asterisk* Off.
We added method chaining to the domain classes to improve the feel of programmatic configuration. We talk about this change when we introduced the development goals for 2.1.0 and we talked in depth about method chaining when we started researching weather we should support it or not in our post Configuration Method Chaining.
We also made some positive changes to the project’s exceptions. We have a lot of exceptions for reporting different issues with architecture rules configuration and with the project that the tool is inspecting. We added some references to the packages that cuase the exception to be thrown, and we tied all of the exceptions together under one higher level exception, the ArchitectureRulesException.
Release Date
Architecture Rules 2.1.0 is officially released on Friday, July 4th, 2008. This is a great date for a milestone release not because it is an American national holiday, but because it is one year from the day that development started on the project just about to the day. The first release, 1.0, was made just a couple weeks after development started, on July 17th, 2007. So happy anniversary Architecture Rules. With wildcards, a new domain name, and the upcoming maven 2 plugin, this next year is going to be bigger than the last.
Upcoming Releases
There will be a 3.0.0 release soon. Today, the maven 2 plugin that has been in development and the architecture rules project have different package names. One com.seventytwomiles and one info.manandbytes because I developed most of the core project as 72miles.com and Mykola developed the plugin under his domain mandandbytes.info. Before I can see developers using the plugin, we need to normalize the domain names. We’ll purchase ArchitectureRules.org any day now, update the site, update the documentation, and update the packages. This will be a major change to the users, warranting the 3.0.0 release. If you can afford a couple bucks to help get the domain, we would really appreciate the monatary support.
Once the packages are straigned out, we can push out the plugin. We need to write the documentation for the maven 2 architecture rules plugin. Mykola has been working hard on the plugin for months now. Its actually been ready for public consumption for a while, we just haven’t had the time to document it for the public. I will make this my next task and get the plugin out for everyone to start using. It makes Architecture Rules even easier to use by allowing the user to skip writing a silly little Test class and lets you move Architecture Rules right into your everyday build process. Awesome.
2.1.0
For a complete list of the changes, check out the 2.1.0 release/download page. You can get the update by downloading the new jar, or by updating your pom.xml to version 2.1.0.