Maven assembly plugin including multiple versions of Spring XSD files - spring

Question

We are packaging our Spring application into a jar using Maven. Initially, for testing, I was building a folder with all the dependency jars within Eclipse:
File -> Export -> Runnable Jar -> Copy required libraries into a sub folder
(This actually creates the application jar as well, but that I built outise Eclipse using Maven).
The application ran fine from the command line. Now, I have added the assembly plugin (jar-with-dependencies)to the pom.xml and am using that to generate one jar with all the classes from all the dependent jars. This will not run, and it appears the issue is that multiple versions of various Spring XSD files have been included in the dependency-jar.
I built a maven dependency tree, (mvn dependency:tree >dependencies.txt), but this does not help to show what is causing this problem,as it only shows dependencies between jars, not at the class or file level . These are the jars in our build:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-oxm</artifactId>
<version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.jdbc</artifactId>
<version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-core</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-infrastructure</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-test</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-admin-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.2.2.RELEASE</version>
<type>pom</type>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-admin-manager</artifactId>
<version>1.2.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-batch-admin-resources</artifactId>
<version>1.2.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.7</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
<version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
<version>1.2.14</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.oracle</groupId>
<artifactId>ojdbc6</artifactId>
<version>11.2.0.2.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.codehaus.castor</groupId>
<artifactId>com.springsource.org.castor</artifactId>
<version>1.2.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
<artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
<version>2.2.11</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.activemq</groupId>
<artifactId>activemq-core</artifactId>
<version>5.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
<artifactId>jms</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
<type>pom</type>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>cglib</groupId>
<artifactId>cglib-nodep</artifactId>
<version>2.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>net.sourceforge.jtds</groupId>
<artifactId>com.springsource.net.sourceforge.jtds</artifactId>
<version>1.2.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.jms</artifactId>
<version>3.2.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.integration</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-integration-core</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.integration</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-integration-jms</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.integration</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-integration-file</artifactId>
<version>$2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.integration</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-integration-xml</artifactId>
<version>2.2.6.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.integration</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-integration-jdbc</artifactId>
<version>${spring.integration.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
<version>4.0.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>com.springsource.org.aspectj.tools</artifactId>
<version>1.6.12.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>com.springsource.org.aspectj.runtime</artifactId>
<version>1.7.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>com.springsource.org.aspectj.weaver</artifactId>
<version>1.7.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.solace</groupId>
<artifactId>sol-common</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0.146</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.solace</groupId>
<artifactId>sol-jms</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0.146</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.solace</groupId>
<artifactId>sol-jcsmp</artifactId>
<version>6.0.0.146</version>
</dependency>
Any help is very much appreciated.

Answer 1

Yes all the spring jars have spring.schemas and spring.handlers (which take care of the namespace handling) files in their respective META-INFs. Those files will get overwritten by each other. You will need to use the shade plugin (instead of assembly) with ResourceTransformers. The two combined, will merge the file content of the same file name onto one file. An example of the plugin for spring use would be something like this: (obtained from the ResourceTransformer link above). The two combined, will merge the file content of the same file name onto one file
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>shade</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<transformers>
<transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
<resource>META-INF/spring.handlers</resource>
</transformer>
<transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
<resource>META-INF/spring.schemas</resource>
</transformer>
</transformers>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
I'd also recommend looking into Spring Boot. It makes running Spring apps a lot easier, without having to deal with this problem.
NOTE: And just an FYI, there are not multiples of the xsd files. Each spring jar has its own set with different name and versions. What you are duplicates are the spring.schemas and spring.handlers. They handle the namespace "directing" for each of the jars. But when you use the assembly plugin to build an uber jar, only one of the files will be used. So one of the many spring jars will be able to handle the namespaces
EDIT:
Sorry about my NOTE, I misread your title. The versions of the xsd don't make a difference. They're all there for backward compatability. The version you action use is either specified on the xml app context files, of if not specified there, the latest version will be used