Trouble Installing/Using Grails Release Plugin 2.2.1 - maven

Question

I'm trying to get the Grails release plugin to work, but running into some trouble. The current version of Grails that ships with STS/GGTS is 2.2.3, so I can't use the most recent version (3.0) of the release plugin because that requires Grails 2.3. Instead, I tried to install version 2.2.1.
I started by adding the following to my BuildConfig.groovy and refreshed my dependencies.
plugins {
... // other plugin dependencies
build ':release:2.2.1', ':rest-client-builder:1.0.3', {
export = false
}
... // other plugin dependencies
}
but I got the following error when I ran grails maven-install
| Script 'MavenInstall' not found, did you mean:
1) UninstallPlugin
2) InstallPlugin
3) InstallDependency
4) InstallJQuery
5) InstallTemplates
.
.
LOTS OF TROUBLE SHOOTING DETAILS FOLLOW.
YOU CAN JUST SKIP TO PETER'S ANSWER BELOW
.
.
Then, I found this JIRA issue, and I listed my plug-ins and release was not install, so I tried
grails install-plugin release 2.2.1
and refreshed my dependencies and I ended up with a compilation error in GrailsCentralDeployer. It could not find grails.plugins.rest.client.RestBuilder, so I ran
grails install-plugin rest-client-builder 1.0.3
and refreshed my dependencies and the error went away. At this point, I'm not sure if the code I added to BuildConfig.groovy is actually doing anything.
Now, when I run
grails maven-install --stacktrace
I get the following
| Loading Grails 2.2.3
| Configuring classpath.
| Environment set to development.....
| Packaging Grails application.....
| Error Error executing script MavenInstall: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: grails.plugins.publish.DistributionManagementInfo (NOTE: Stack trace has been filtered. Use --verbose to see entire trace.)
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: grails.plugins.publish.DistributionManagementInfo
If it helps, here are the contents of my BuildConfig.groovy
removed - refer to edit 2 below
EDIT 1
This is my was application.properties file
#Grails Metadata file
#Thu Jul 25 07:05:41 EDT 2013
app.grails.version=2.2.3
app.name=swiper-admin
app.version=0.1
plugins.spring-security-cas=1.0.5
plugins.spring-security-core=1.2.7.3
plugins.spring-security-ldap=1.0.6
I moved the security plugins from here to BuildConfig.groovy and everything worked fine, so the new file looks like this
#Grails Metadata file
#Thu Jul 25 07:05:41 EDT 2013
app.grails.version=2.2.3
app.name=swiper-admin
app.version=0.1
and my new BuildConfig.groovy looks like this.
removed - refer to edit 2 below
I ran grails clean and then grails compile and the grails maven-install and got the same ClassNotFoundException: grails.plugins.publish.DistributionManagementInfo
I then ran grails list-plugins --installed and this is the output
removed - refer to edit 2 below
Edit 2
#peter-ledbrook, Before, I saw your advice, I have freshly cleaned the project. I added grails.project.work.dir = "target" to my BuildConfig.groovy then ran the following
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$ grails clean
| Application cleaned.
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$ grails refresh-dependencies
| Dependencies refreshed.
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$ grails maven-install
| Script 'MavenInstall' not found, did you mean:
1) UninstallPlugin
2) InstallPlugin
3) InstallDependency
4) InstallJQuery
5) InstallTemplates
> Please make a selection or enter Q to quit: Q
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$ grails compile
| Compiling 143 source files
| Compiling 27 source files.
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$ grails maven-install
| Script 'MavenInstall' not found, did you mean:
1) UninstallPlugin
2) InstallPlugin
3) InstallDependency
4) InstallJQuery
5) InstallTemplates
> Please make a selection or enter Q to quit: Q
user#computer:~/dev/workspace/swiper-admin$
My BuildConfig.groovy looks like this
grails.servlet.version = "2.5" // Change depending on target container compliance (2.5 or 3.0)
grails.project.class.dir = "target/classes"
grails.project.test.class.dir = "target/test-classes"
grails.project.test.reports.dir = "target/test-reports"
grails.project.target.level = 1.6
grails.project.source.level = 1.6
grails.project.war.file = "${appName}-${appVersion}.war"
grails.project.work.dir = "target"
grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
// inherit Grails' default dependencies
inherits("global") { }
log "warn" // log level of Ivy resolver, either 'error', 'warn', 'info', 'debug' or 'verbose'
checksums true // Whether to verify checksums on resolve
legacyResolve false // whether to do a secondary resolve on plugin installation, not advised and here for backwards compatibility
repositories {
inherits true // Whether to inherit repository definitions from plugins
grailsPlugins()
grailsHome()
grailsCentral()
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
// uncomment these (or add new ones) to enable remote dependency resolution from public Maven repositories
//mavenRepo "http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org"
//mavenRepo "http://repository.codehaus.org"
//mavenRepo "http://download.java.net/maven/2/"
//mavenRepo "http://repository.jboss.com/maven2/"
}
dependencies { }
plugins {
runtime ":hibernate:$grailsVersion"
runtime ":jquery:1.8.3"
runtime ":resources:1.2"
build ":tomcat:$grailsVersion"
build ':release:2.2.1', ':rest-client-builder:1.0.3', { export = false }
compile ':cache:1.0.1'
compile ":db-reverse-engineer:0.5"
//security
compile ":spring-security-core:1.2.7.3"
compile ":spring-security-cas:1.0.5"
compile ":spring-security-ldap:1.0.6"
}
}
grails.project.repos.atlassian_nexus.url = "https://atlassian.liberty.edu/nexus/content/groups/public"
grails.project.repos.atlassian_nexus.username = "terskine"
grails.project.repos.default = "atlassian_nexus"
and grails list-plugins --installed look like this
| Loading Grails 2.2.3
| Configuring classpath.
| Environment set to development.....
Plug-ins you currently have installed are listed below:
-------------------------------------------------------------
cache 1.0.1 -- Cache Plugin
db-reverse-engineer 0.5 -- Grails Database Reverse Engineering Plugin
hibernate 2.2.3 -- Hibernate for Grails
jquery 1.8.3 -- JQuery for Grails
resources 1.2 -- Resources
spring-security-cas 1.0.5 -- Jasig CAS support for the Spring Security plugin.
spring-security-core1.2.7.3 -- Spring Security Core Plugin
spring-security-ldap1.0.6 -- LDAP authentication support for the Spring Security plugin.
tomcat 2.2.3 -- Apache Tomcat plugin for Grails
webxml 1.4.1 -- WebXmlConfig
To find more info about plugin type 'grails plugin-info [NAME]'
To install type 'grails install-plugin [NAME] [VERSION]'
For further info visit http://grails.org/Plugins

Answer 1

Edit The problem is the export = false. Remove that. I don't understand why it's preventing the installation of the plugin, so it's possibly a bug in Grails. Raise an issue in the Grails JIRA.
Previous answer
What you're doing looks fine. I would simply add this line to the beginning of BuildConfig.groovy:
grails.project.work.dir = "target"
Save that and then run
grails refresh-dependencies
grails maven-install
Any time there seem to be strange class-related errors, simply delete the whole of the target directory.

Answer 2

Don't use install-plugin, it's deprecated and removed entirely in 2.3.
You were correct to use BuildConfig.groovy - after saving the change you just need to run grails compile or some other commandline script that triggers dependency resolution. This will install any missing plugins and their dependencies, and report any errors.
Note that since you ran install-plugin you probably have cruft in application.properties - be sure to delete any lines in there that refer to installed plugins. For a plugin you can delete everything except for
app.grails.version=2.2.3
Your BuildConfig.groovy looks a bit weird, more of an application type of file than a plugin. You don't need grails.servlet.version, grails.project.target.level, grails.project.source.level, grails.project.war.file. Also I like to keep things simple and move everything to the target folder with the grails.project.work.dir property.
And do you really need all of those plugin dependencies? They make sense in an application, but not in a plugin unless your plugin really does need them:
grails.project.work.dir = "target"
grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
inherits 'global'
log 'warn'
repositories {
grailsCentral()
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
}
plugins {
build ':release:2.2.1', ':rest-client-builder:1.0.3', { export = false }
}
}
grails.project.repos.foo.url = "https://server.domain.edu/nexus/content/groups/public"
grails.project.repos.foo.username = "bar"
grails.project.repos.default = "foo"