[MSITE-1016] site:stage should function without a URL specified in the POM

[jira-importer]

Claude Warren opened MSITE-1016 and commented

Note: actual version is 3.8.6

Documentation states:

By default, the site will be staged in a directory {}target/staging/{}.

Issue description:

When I try to run site:stage without a site entry in the pom distrobutionManagement section I get an error that says the site entry must be specified.

Specifying
<distributionManagement>
<site>
<id>staging</id>
</site>
</distributionManagement>

Will yield an error that states the URL must be specified. Entering an invalid URL solves the problem.

<distributionManagement>

<site>
<id>staging</id>
<url>invalid:url</url>
</site>
</distributionManagement>

The above is literally the text in my pom file.

Desired setup:

I would like to see the URL be optional so that I can trigger the site:stage goal without having to specify the URL in the pom and without having to specify the stagingDirectory on the command line.

I would also like this better documented.

---

Affects: 3.20.0

Issue Links:

• RAT-409 Site generation does not work without package
  ("is caused by")

[jira-importer]

Michael Osipov commented

3.8.6? That version is ages old. Please try a newer one.

[jira-importer]

Claude Warren commented

Under Maven 3.9.9

with

<distributionManagement>

</distributionManagement>

or

<distributionManagement>

\<site>

<site>
</distributionManagement>

 or

<distributionManagement>

\<site>
    \<id>staging\</id>

<site>
</distributionManagement>

when executing "mvn site:stage" after "mvn site" I receive the following error:

[[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-site-plugin:3.20.0:stage (default-cli) on project apache-rat-project: Missing site data: specify url and id for project Apache Creadur Rat (org.apache.rat:apache-rat-project:0.17-SNAPSHOT) -> [Help 1]

with

<distributionManagement>

\<site>
    \<id>staging\</id>
    \<url>invalid:url\</url>

<site>
</distributionManagement>

the staging works. I literally put "<url>invalid:url</url>" entry. Previously our pom listed "<url>file:bogus</file>" which also worked.

[jira-importer]

Michael Osipov commented

The URL is required to calculate internal links. The stage goal is based on deploy which is in turn based on site. Without looking into it further I'd say that it would violate then principle of the entire site concept. Hervé Boutemy

[jira-importer]

Claude Warren commented

Ok, so the documentation is wrong and you have to have a valid URL for the stage to work? Except you don't.

Or, The documentation is correct and you don't need to specify the URL. Except that it doesn't have to be a valid URL.

In my opinion, the site:stage goal should work without the URL being specified, or perhaps with the url empty (e.g. "<url></url>"). I suspect that without the URL "deploy" deploys to the "target/staging" directory as noted in the documentation. The problem arises in that the documentation says if the URL is not specified it will write to "target/staging" and that is exactly what it does if the URL is invalid. But the pom check seems to require the URL so an invalid one allows the "target/staging" to be written to.

It feels like the check for the URL needs to be relaxed. Perhaps not for all targets, but for "stage" and from Michael Osipov 's comment "deploy"

[jira-importer]

Michael Osipov commented

Thanks for pointing out. At least we should fix the docs short term. Midterm we need to discuss to what extent request makes sense. I can't at the moment.

[jira-importer]

Claude Warren commented

The docs should at least say that setting the URL to an invalid value will
place the staged site in target/staging.

On Mon, Sep 30, 2024 at 8:41 AM Michael Osipov (Jira) jira@apache.org