Appendix A. Building
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## Appendix A. Building

## A.1 Basic Compile and Test

To build the source you will need to install JDK 1.7.

The build uses the Maven wrapper so you don’t have to install a specific version of Maven. To enable the tests for Redis, Rabbit, and Kafka bindings you should have those servers running before building. See below for more information on running the servers.

The main build command is

    $ ./mvnw clean install

You can also add '-DskipTests' if you like, to avoid running the tests.

| Note
You can also install Maven (>=3.3.3) yourself and run the `mvn` command in place of `./mvnw` in the examples below. If you do that you also might need to add `-P spring` if your local Maven settings do not contain repository declarations for spring pre-release artifacts.

| Note
Be aware that you might need to increase the amount of memory available to Maven by setting a `MAVEN_OPTS` environment variable with a value like `-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m`. We try to cover this in the `.mvn` configuration, so if you find you have to do it to make a build succeed, please raise a ticket to get the settings added to source control.

The projects that require middleware generally include a `docker-compose.yml`, so consider using Docker Compose to run the middeware servers in Docker containers. See the README in the scripts demo repository for specific instructions about the common cases of mongo, rabbit and redis.

## A.2 Documentation

There is a "full" profile that will generate documentation.

## A.3 Working with the code

If you don’t have an IDE preference we would recommend that you use Spring Tools Suite or Eclipse when working with the code. We use the m2eclipe eclipse plugin for maven support. Other IDEs and tools should also work without issue.

### A.3.1 Importing into eclipse with m2eclipse

We recommend the m2eclipe eclipse plugin when working with eclipse. If you don’t already have m2eclipse installed it is available from the "eclipse marketplace".

Unfortunately m2e does not yet support Maven 3.3, so once the projects are imported into Eclipse you will also need to tell m2eclipse to use the `.settings.xml` file for the projects. If you do not do this you may see many different errors related to the POMs in the projects. Open your Eclipse preferences, expand the Maven preferences, and select User Settings. In the User Settings field click Browse and navigate to the Spring Cloud project you imported selecting the `.settings.xml` file in that project. Click Apply and then OK to save the preference changes.

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Alternatively you can copy the repository settings from `.settings.xml` into your own `~/.m2/settings.xml`.

### A.3.2 Importing into eclipse without m2eclipse

If you prefer not to use m2eclipse you can generate eclipse project metadata using the following command:

    $ ./mvnw eclipse:eclipse

The generated eclipse projects can be imported by selecting `import existing projects` from the `file` menu. [[contributing] == Contributing

Spring Cloud is released under the non-restrictive Apache 2.0 license, and follows a very standard Github development process, using Github tracker for issues and merging pull requests into master. If you want to contribute even something trivial please do not hesitate, but follow the guidelines below.

## A.4 Sign the Contributor License Agreement

Before we accept a non-trivial patch or pull request we will need you to sign the contributor’s agreement. Signing the contributor’s agreement does not grant anyone commit rights to the main repository, but it does mean that we can accept your contributions, and you will get an author credit if we do. Active contributors might be asked to join the core team, and given the ability to merge pull requests.

## A.5 Code Conventions and Housekeeping

None of these is essential for a pull request, but they will all help. They can also be added after the original pull request but before a merge.

- Use the Spring Framework code format conventions. If you use Eclipse you can import formatter settings using the `eclipse-code-formatter.xml` file from the Spring Cloud Build project. If using IntelliJ, you can use the Eclipse Code Formatter Plugin to import the same file.
- Make sure all new `.java` files to have a simple Javadoc class comment with at least an `@author` tag identifying you, and preferably at least a paragraph on what the class is for.
- Add the ASF license header comment to all new `.java` files (copy from existing files in the project)
- Add yourself as an `@author` to the .java files that you modify substantially (more than cosmetic changes).
- Add some Javadocs and, if you change the namespace, some XSD doc elements.
- A few unit tests would help a lot as well — someone has to do it.
- If no-one else is using your branch, please rebase it against the current master (or other target branch in the main project).
- When writing a commit message please follow these conventions, if you are fixing an existing issue please add `Fixes gh-XXXX` at the end of the commit message (where XXXX is the issue number).

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