------
 Introspecting a class loader
 ------
 Mark Hobson
 <markhobson@gmail.com>
 ------
 19 May 2008
 ------


Introspecting a class loader

 Maven Runtime can introspect a class loader to obtain metadata for each Maven project accessible within it.
 
* Using project properties

 To obtain a list of
 <<<{{{../apidocs/org/apache/maven/shared/runtime/MavenProjectProperties.html}MavenProjectProperties}}>>>
 instances for each Maven project accessible within a specified class loader:

---
/**
 * @component
 */
private MavenRuntime runtime;

public void processProjects() throws MavenRuntimeException
{
    ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    
    List<MavenProjectProperties> projects = runtime.getProjectsProperties( classLoader );
    
    // process projects
}
---

* Using project XML

 To obtain a list of
 <<<{{{http://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-project/apidocs/org/apache/maven/project/MavenProject.html}MavenProject}}>>>
 instances for each Maven project accessible within a specified class loader:

---
/**
 * @component
 */
private MavenRuntime runtime;

public void processProjects() throws MavenRuntimeException
{
    ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    
    List<MavenProject> projects = runtime.getProjects( classLoader );
    
    // process projects
}
---

* Sorting projects by dependency order

 When obtaining Maven metadata using project XML, the resultant <<<MavenProject>>> instances can be sorted by dependency
 order.  To obtain a list of <<<MavenProject>>> instances for each Maven project accessible within a specified class 
 loader ordered by their dependencies:

---
/**
 * @component
 */
private MavenRuntime runtime;

public void processProjects() throws MavenRuntimeException
{
    ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    
    List<MavenProject> projects = runtime.getSortedProjects( classLoader );
    
    // process projects
}
---

 Note that project properties cannot be sorted by dependency order since they do not contain any dependency information.