[MNG-2769] Use of POM namespace is confused and confusing in both the code and the documentation

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 2.0.4
• Fix Version/s: Documentation Deficit
• Component/s: Artifacts and Repositories, Documentation: Guides, General, POM
• Assignee: Siveton Vincent
• Reporter: nigel magnay
• Created: 15/Jan/07 04:44
• Updated: 09/Jan/08 14:24
• Resolved: 09/Jan/08 14:24

Description

Looking at the (very good) documentation on the POM at http://maven.apache.org/pom.html, the very first link is to the POM XSD, the schema definition for the XML. This XSD explicitly places POMs into the namespace targetNamespace="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0".

However, the immediately following examples of POMs do not place their examples inside this namespace (there should be an xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" at the root element).

Taking a look through my local repository, it's all a bit hit-and-miss as to whether the defined POM is in the correct namespace or not.

This is really annoying, because any tools I write that wish to use standard XML parsers to consume the POM need, in effect, to pass a namespace manager around, because if I wish to XPath to 'dependencies', I have to say 'is this //pom:dependencies, or is it a "defective" POM, where it's just //dependencies. This is bad if I'm using XSLT too (as one might to display a 'prettyprinted' POM).

• The documentation should use the namespace
• Maven should probably warn when it meets a POM that it's compiling from contains information in an invalid namespace.
• Maven should re-namespace POMs to be in the 'right' namespace when copying to repositories (or perhaps modify any POM.xml that it sees which is incorrect automatically).

Issue Links

• relates to: MNG-2715 Maven does not comply to XML rules regarding prefixes.
• relates to: MNG-2255 Use a external XML Pull parser instead of plexus one