How can I set path in this Maven plugin? - maven

Question

I'm new to Maven plugins, and I need to get this plugin working to run the sencha cmd tool to minify our JavaScript app as part of the daily build process.
Currently the executable tag has a hard coded path, but I'm wondering if I can specify the path as an environment variable, and then access that environment variable in the code below so it can be run on any machine?
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>sencha-compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>C:\Sencha\Sencha\Cmd\4.0.2.67\sencha.exe</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>app</argument>
<argument>build</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

Answer 1

Check my Sencha ExtJS 5 + Sencha Cmd 5 + Maven integration example at:
https://github.com/dobromyslov/sencha-extjs-maven
You have to set environment variable:
Export it in console via:
$ export SENCHA_CMD="/path/to/your/Sencha/Cmd/5.0.0.116/sencha"
Also you can add this export statement to your ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile file in order to make it permanent.
Or add new environment variable on Windows.
Set Sencha Cmd build environment:
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<!-- Default build environment -->
<sencha.env>production</sencha.env>
</properties>
<profiles>
<!-- Development profile -->
<profile>
<id>dev</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>env</name>
<value>development</value>
</property>
</activation>
<properties>
<sencha.env>testing</sencha.env>
</properties>
</profile>
<!-- Production profile -->
<profile>
<id>prod</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>env</name>
<value>production</value>
</property>
</activation>
<properties>
<sencha.env>production</sencha.env>
</properties>
</profile>
</profiles>
Then use the following Maven plugin:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>sencha-compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<!-- Set path to your Sencha Cmd executable-->
<executable>${env.SENCHA_CMD}</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>-sdk</argument>
<argument>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</argument>
<argument>app</argument>
<argument>build</argument>
<argument>--clean</argument>
<argument>--environment</argument>
<argument>${sencha.env}</argument>
<argument>--destination</argument>
<argument>${basedir}/src/main/webapp/build</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
And run
$ mvn compile

Answer 2

To answer your question, you can reference system environment variables from within a maven pom file with this syntax:
${env.NAME_OF_VARIABLE}
See this link for more details:
https://maven.apache.org/pom.html#Properties
If you named the environment variable PATH_TO_SENCHA_EXE you could reference it like this:
<executable>${env.PATH_TO_SENCHA_EXE}sencha.exe</executable>
As an alternative to environment variables, you could consider creating a property in your pom to contain this path. Then you could change the value used for different environments by passing a new value for the property on the command line or by loading a properties file in your pom that may contain this property. There are many options here.
Edit:
I found the latter suggestion has been covered on SO at the following link (and likely other places):
Reading properties file from Maven POM file