Other tools that we use

Fixme: TODO: add missing link targets

Subversion

The Cocoon project uses Subversion for source code version management... details here.

Maven

The Cocoon project uses Apache Maven in several roles:

For Cocoon users: as the downloader for getting the artifacts that constitute the Cocoon binary distributions. These artifacts include:
- Cocoon jars
- Dependent jars
- Configuration files
This method is superior to other alternatives, e.g. downloading tarballs, manually downloading transitively dependent artifacts, etc.
Also for Cocoon users: optionally, as the deployer/launcher for Cocoon, e.g. to run in an instance of the Jetty servlet container (details).
For Cocoon application developers building web apps using Cocoon + custom Java code: it's recommended that you set up your projects to use Maven as your build tool. This frees you from having to deal with all the usual low-level build infrastructure issues of classpaths, jar dependencies and versions, etc. and lets you get on with the coding!
For Cocoon developers: as the build tool for building Cocoon (all, or parts of) from the source code. You are a Cocoon developer if you are working on a patch or other source code submission. Note: Cocoon users / application developers should never need to build Cocoon from the source code. It should be sufficient to specify Cocoon artifacts in your project's Maven POM, which you can set up initially using a Maven archetype.

Note: Maven 2.0.6 or greater is required for all of these tasks.

Eclipse

A lot of Cocoon developers like to use the Eclipse IDE, so the Cocoon build sets up Cocoon as an Eclipse project. However, you don't have to use Eclipse to develop with or on Cocoon. You can get by with nothing but a text editor and Maven.

Jira

The Cocoon project uses Atlassian JIRA for bug/issue tracking. Anyone can browse the issues. Anyone can create or comment on an issue too, you just have to create a login on Apache's JIRA first.

Continuum

The Cocoon project uses Maven Continuum to run its continuous integration build cycle. This probably isn't all that interesting except to the Cocoon committers. For the rest of us, we can just feel happy about the fact that Cocoon is being integrated... continuously... :-)