Secure, Flexible and Scalable Build Configuration with Maven

Maven project example accompanying article Secure, Flexible and Scalable Build Configuration with Maven

Prerequisites

• Maven 3+
• Java 1.8+

Instructions

1) Setup "local" profile

Before building the project you must configure local profile, which is active by default. An example Filter File SAMPLE-local.properties is provided as a template:

• create a folder for application logs on your local file system, e.g.:
  • Linux/Unix-like: /var/logs/maven-flexiconf
  • Windows: C:/logs/maven-flexiconf
• open configuration/SAMPLE-local.properties
• copy and rename it local.properties
• in local.properties set the values of the following properties according to the folder you created above:
  • log.path
  • log.rolled.path

In .gitignore there's an entry for the local filter file you created (configuration/local.properties), so it cannot be committed to the repository. This way you safely modify it, putting in it local paths, passwords, etc. without worrying that sensitive data will be pushed to the repository.

2) Build application

Default Build

Build command:

mvn package

As the default active profile is local, executing this build command will use properties from configuration/local.properties. The result of the build is a jar with its dependencies:

target/maven-flexiconf-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Production Build

To run a production build you need to activate the prod profile.

To simulate an actual production build you should provide informations (especially sensitive ones) on the command line, leaving configuration/prod.properties untouched.

Here's an example command (make sure to copy it on a single line):

mvn package -Pprod "-Djdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://prod.example.org:3306/maven-flexiconf" \
  "-Djdbc.username=prod-user" \
  "-Djdbc.password=prod-password"
  "-Dlog.path=/var/logs/my-application" \
  "-Dlog.rolled.path=/var/logs/my-application/rolled"

3) Run application

On Unix/Linux/Mac:

java -jar target/maven-flexiconf-jar-with-dependencies.jar

On Windows:

java -jar .\target\maven-flexiconf-jar-with-dependencies.jar

After running the application you will find a maven-flexiconf.log log file in the directory you created in Step 1.

4) Experiment!

Run different build profiles

• do a local build and run the application
• run a prod build and run the application
• check the difference in log files

Create new build profiles

Try creating a new build profile, e.g. qa (Quality Assurance) or integration, overriding files in src/main/resources-override and putting properties in correct filter files.

Remember: security is a top priority. Try to understand why preventing sensitive data to leak in Git repository is important and how to ensure it.