Issue pulling SNAPSHOT dependencies from Archiva snapshot repository - maven

Question

I've been setting up an Apache Archiva instance as both a proxy to Maven Central and to capture our development snapshots. I've managed to setup the proxy and I can deploy artifacts to the Archiva snapshot repository however I cannot pull artifacts from the snapshot repositories to use in other projects.
Relevant parts of pom.xml (dependant project)
<project>
<!-- Excluded detail -->
<dependency>
<groupId>uk.abc</groupId>
<artifactId>ABC</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<type>war</type>
</dependency>
<!-- Excluded detail -->
<distributionManagement>
<repository>
<id>archiva.snapshots</id>
<name>Snapshot Repository</name>
<url>https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/archiva/repository/snapshots</url>
</repository>
</distributionManagement>
<!-- Excluded detail -->
</project>
My ~/.m2/settings.xml
<settings>
<servers>
<server>
<id>archiva.snapshots</id>
<username>username</username>
<password>xxx</password>
</server>
<server>
<id>archiva.internal</id>
<username>username</username>
<password>xxx</password>
</server>
</servers>
<mirrors>
<mirror>
<id>archiva.internal</id>
<mirrorOf>central</mirrorOf>
<url>https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/archiva/repository/internal</url>
</mirror>
<mirror>
<id>archiva.snapshots</id>
<mirrorOf>snapshots</mirrorOf>
<url>https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/archiva/repository/snapshots</url>
</mirror>
</mirrors>
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>default</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>archiva.internal</id>
<name>Archiva Managed Internal Repository</name>
<url>https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/archiva/repository/internal/</url>
<releases>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</releases>
<snapshots>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>
<repository>
<id>archiva.snapshots</id>
<name>Archiva Managed Internal Repository</name>
<url>https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/archiva/repository/snapshots/</url>
<releases>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</releases>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>
</profile>
</profiles>
</settings>
When I build the dependant project I cannot reference classes (public access).
Just to note that I can browse the snapshots repository and I know the war file is there.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

It turns out that you cannot use the "war" dependency type and expect to be able to reference the contained classes. You can however create an additional jar (create both war and jar) containing the classes:
http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/faq.html#attached
You can the use the type "jar" when pulling in the dependency... in my case:
<dependency>
<groupId>uk.abc</groupId>
<artifactId>ABC</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<type>jar</type>
</dependency>
I think therefore the question is a bit misleading... the dependency was being pulled from Archiva but was not of an accessible type.

Answer 2

You are probably not activating the profile correctly
before the profile in settings.xml put something like
<activeProfiles>
<activeProfile>default</activeProfile>
</activeProfiles>
Remember this about activeByDefault
This profile will automatically be active for all builds unless
another profile in the same POM is activated using one of the
previously described methods. All profiles that are active by default
are automatically deactivated when a profile in the POM is activated
on the command line or through its activation config.
if you want to confirm if this is the issue, look at the active profiles by running help:active-profiles