Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ? (Pros and Cons)
Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ? (Pros and Cons). The article introduces both tools. First one is called Maven. A build / environment tool that automates the building of software for the Java platform. Individual Maven functions are implemented through plugins, which are automatically downloaded the first time when they are used. Secondly, on the other hand, we have Jenkins. Most of all, an open source server for implementing Continuous Integration (CI). Indeed, also an automation software for software development. In particular, it facilitates the building, testing and deployment of applications. Enables software development in a continuous integration and continuous delivery mode.
Thus, the article introduces both in details, then goes over pros and cons and finally presents the main differences between them.
Shall we start with Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ?
What is Maven?
Let’s take a closer look Maven first. All in all, a powerful project management tool based on the Project Object Model (POM). Used to build projects, dependencies and documentation. For that reason, it also simplifies the building process similarly to ANT. Additionally, it is used to build and manage Java based projects but also C#, Ruby, Scala, and other.
How does Maven work?
Firstly, Maven works by reading a project’s pom.xml file, which stands for ‘Project Object Model’. In that case, the File contains information about the project, such as its dependencies, build plugins and any required properties. What is more, Maven uses this information to build the project.
Furthermore, Maven follows a set of conventions about how a project should be laid out and how it should be built. Basically, it means that once you have set up your Maven project, you use Maven’s command line interface or integration with your preferred integrated development environment (IDE). Whereas all this to build the project without having to manually configure the build process.
In addition to providing a standard build process, Maven also provides a way to manage dependencies, the external libraries that your project depends on. In this case, Maven pulls dependencies from remote repositories and includes them in your project’s class path, allowing you to easily use external libraries in your project. Hence, there is no need to manually download and manage them.
How does it benefit your Development Process?
Primarily, Maven helps developers easily create Java based projects. Availability of new features created or added to Maven is easily added to your project in the configuration stage. In turn, that improves the efficiency of the design and build process.
A key feature of Maven is that it automatically downloads project dependency libraries. Some popular IDE examples that support development with the Maven framework.
- Eclipse.
- IntelliJ IDEA.
- JBuilder.
- NetBeans.
- MyEclipse.
Features of Maven
- Dependency management, featuring automatic updating.
- Backwards compatible with previous versions.
- A huge, continuously growing repository of user libraries.
- Ability to set up projects easily, using best practices.
- Extensible, where you easily write plugins using scripting languages or Java.
- Dynamic loading of required Java libraries and plugins from Maven repositories.
- Consistent project information site using the same metadata as the build process, maven can generate a website and PDF with full documentation.
Pros and cons of Maven
Pros
- Adding a new dependency is very easy. Just write the dependency code in pom file.
- Run projects easily in different environments and eliminate the need to deal with dependency injection, builds, processing, etc.
- Use Maven to easily create jar, war, etc. projects as per your requirements.
Cons
- If maven code for an existing dependency is not available, then one cannot add that dependency using maven.
- Need maven installed on your system and maven plugin for IDE.
What is Jenkins?
Up next with Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ? is Jenkins. Markedly, an open source automation server, that helps continuous integration of the parts of the software development process. Generally, Jenkins provides hundreds of plugins to help build, deploy and automate any project. Overall, it provides a web based user interface that makes it easy to configure continuous integration and continuous delivery. Most importantly, it is widely used in software industries to automate the process of building and testing various projects.
How does Jenkins work?
Of course, the tools works by continuously checking a central repository for new code changes and automatically builds, tests, and deploys those changes as they are found. Significantly, it runs tests, static code analysis, and other automated tasks to ensure the quality of the code being integrated.
Please note how our Jenkins works:
- Developers change the code in the local repository and push the changes to the central repository.
- Monitors the central repository and discovers new code changes.
- Gets your code changes and starts the build process. This may include compiling code, running tests, and performing static code analysis.
- If the build process succeeds, Jenkins deploys your code changes to your staging or production environment.
- Well, if the build process fails, Jenkins notifies the development team and stops the deployment process.
How Jenkins benefits your Development Process?
Automation – Jenkins automates the process of building, testing, and deploying software projects, freeing developers to focus on coding and delivering value to users.
Visibility – Provides a web interface for developers to monitor build and deployment progress and view the results of automated tasks such as testing and static code analysis. This visibility helps developers identify and fix issues faster.
Continuous integration – Certainly continuously checks for code changes in a central repository and is configured to automatically build and deploy changes, so you always have the most up to date code in your staging or production environment.
Extensibility – Provides a number of plugins that are used to extend its functionality and integrate with other tools and services. This allows developers to tailor Jenkins to their specific needs and workflow.
Collaboration – Configured to send notifications to the development team when a build or deployment succeeds or fails, facilitating collaboration and communication between team members.
Features
- Easy to install and configure using a web interface with error checking and built in help features.
- Distributes your work across multiple machines with ease for faster creation, testing, and deployment on multiple platforms.
- Standalone, platform independent Java based program ready to be packaged for Windows, Mac OS, and Unix like operating systems.
- Open source resource with active community support.
- Gives a number of security features to help ensure the security and integrity of your build and deployment processes.
Pros and cons of Jenkins
Pros
- Almost each and every language tool is been integrated in it.
- Timely update are managed by its community.
- Agile development, DevOps tool.
- CI CD tool ( ideal for detecting bugs early) and for managing a large number of teams.
- Hosting, monitoring and testing tool (GIT, SVN, ANT).
- Offers multiple types of Jobs and pipelines which makes automation easier.
Cons
- Most of the plugins are developed and managed by open source contributors.
- There is only community support, so sometimes it is problematic to troubleshoot or fix issues.
- Improper error handling in plugins.
We have reached a comparison part of the article Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ?
Maven vs Jenkins - Comparison
Dependency management
On balance, Maven is designed to help developers manage the dependencies of their projects. In effect, it provides a central repository of shared libraries and frameworks that are easily included in your projects. While, Jenkins cannot do exactly this. Instead, Jenkins builds are highly parameterized, and Jenkins easily modularize builds into numerous steps – compile, test, package.
Plugins
On the whole, both Maven and Jenkins have a rich ecosystem of plugins, that allow developers to extend their functionality. On account of Maven, the plugins are usually focused on build related tasks such as compiling code, running tests, and generating reports. On the other hand, Jenkins plugins are used for a variety of purposes, including integration with version control systems, build tools, test environments, and more.
Integration with Other Tools
Java Ecosystem
Especially, Maven allows users to execute a single primitive command and build the foundation for fully interoperable Jakarta EE, Spring Boot, Java EE MicroProfile or Android applications. On the whole Maven plug in is easier than Jenkins. Owing to the fact, that it is done with a basic knowledge of Java programming. By all means, Maven installation is extremely simple, and it does not need to be hosted on a servlet engine, unlike Jenkins.
Configuration
By comparison,Maven uses an XML file called “pom.xml” to store project configuration information. Different from Jenkins, which uses a combination of configuration files and a web user interface to manage build and pipeline configuration.
Purpose
Equally important, Maven is a build tool designed to manage dependencies and software lifecycle. It is also designed to work with plugins that allow users to add other tasks to standard compile, test, package, install, and deploy tasks.
Oppositely, Jenkins is designed to implement continuous integration (CI). So that, it checks the code in the repository, builds and packages it, and automatically sends it to the server for testing. To conclude, Jenkins can use Maven as a build tool.
Build process
Lastly, Maven uses a declarative approach where the developer specifies the desired end result (e.g. jar file) and Maven figures out how to achieve it. To emphasize, Jenkins is a more flexible tool that automates a wide range of build processes.
Thank you for reading Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ? (Pros and Cons). We shall conclude this article blog.
Maven vs Jenkins – What’s the Difference ? Conclusion
Summing up, both Maven and Jenkins are different tools built to play different roles in the development lifecycle. They obviously intersect in several functional areas, but there are very few situations where you have to choose one of them. Actually, the most effective results achieve DevOps that prioritize Maven Jenkins integration together.
If there is a better one to choose between the two, Jenkins would take the first spot. Installation, configuration and available plugins make it such easy tool to deploy. Let’s not forget, Maven is great for compiling code and running tests as one part of the process. However, Jenkins controls every stage of the CI/CD pipeline, it plays a key role in ensuring a smooth and successful DevOps environment.
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