Springframework 1 - How to unify springframework JARs' version in your project?

It is possible to accidentally mix different versions of spring JARs when using maven. For example, you may find that a third-party library, or another spring project, pulls in a transitive dependency to an older release. If you forget to explicitly declare a direct dependency yourself, all sorts of unexpected issues can arise.

To overcome such problems maven supports the concept a "Bill of Materials" dependency or "BOM" dependency. You can import the spring-framework-pom in your dependencyManagement section to ensure that all spring dependencies (both direct and transitive) are at the same version.

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-framework-bom</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.1.RELEASE</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

After using this BOM you can find a spring-framework-bom-4.3.1.RELEASE.pom inside directory, .m2/repository/org/springframework/spring-framework-bom/4.3.1.RELEASE. This file contains all springframework components of this version.

What does 'import' scope of dependency tag mean?

• import (only available in Maven 2.0.9 or later)
  This scope is only used on a dependency of type pom in the <dependencyManagement> section. It indicates that the specified POM should be replaced with the dependencies in that POM's <dependencyManagement> section. Since they are replaced, dependencies with a scope of import do not actually participate in limiting the transitivity of a dependency.

You can add this BOM into parent pom to unify all sub-projects. I added it for my project I'm creating for fun.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   
    <groupId>com.martian.apps.springlab</groupId>
    <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>parent</name>
    <description>Springframework Laboratory :: parent pom</description>

    <modules></modules>

    <properties>
        <springframework.version>4.3.1.RELEASE</springframework.version>
        <slf4j.version>1.7.12</slf4j.version>
        <log4j.version>1.2.17</log4j.version>
        <junit.version>4.12</junit.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <!-- servlet -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                <version>2.5</version>
                <scope>provided</scope>
            </dependency>
            <!-- jstl -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
                <version>1.2</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-framework-bom</artifactId>
                <version>${springframework.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>


            <!-- log -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                <version>1.2</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
                <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>jul-to-slf4j</artifactId>
                <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>log4j-over-slf4j</artifactId>
                <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
                <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
                <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>log4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
                <version>${log4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>log4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>apache-log4j-extras</artifactId>
                <version>${log4j.version}</version>
            </dependency>
           
           
            <!-- junit -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>junit</groupId>
                <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
                <version>${junit.version}</version>
                <scope>test</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
   
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>