NGSS Maven Tiles Overview

The NextGen Shared Services (NGSS) Maven Tiles project contains a comprehensive collection of reusable Maven plugin configurations defined as Maven tiles, enabling standardized build practices across NGSS projects.

Deprecation and Retirement

  • NGSS Maven Tiles 1.x is deprecated as of 8/21/2025 and will no longer be maintained after that point.

  • java-service-base is deprecated as of 8/19/2025, so therefore the 1.x tiles that include it as the default base image (docker-maven-plugin-tile and jib-maven-plugin-tile) will likewise be deprecated.

  • After 6 months of being deprecated, these components will be officially retired from support.

Recommended actions for container tiles (docker-maven-plugin-tile and jib-maven-plugin-tile)

We recommend updating to the new "baseless" tiles introduced in version 1.9.0 - docker-maven-plugin-baseless-tile and jib-maven-plugin-baseless-tile, which do not rely on java-service-base and instead allow you to specify the base image directly in the project pom.xml.

This alleviates a common complaint with maintaining the ngss-maven-tiles version, since it was not readily apparent which version of Tiles corresponded to which version of the standard MAP base/ image, leading to confusion and having to dig unnecessarily for this info.

See Migrating to Baseless Image Tiles for more info.

Recommended actions for all other tiles

Continue to use the most recent releases of 1.x and, if your project requires further customization of Maven configs that are included with these tiles, override applicable configuration(s) in your project’s pom.xml build/plugins field.

What are Maven Tiles?

Maven Tiles are Maven artifacts produced by the Maven Tiles Plugin that allow Maven POM fragments to be compositionally defined and reused. Each tile is simply a Maven POM XML fragment that gets programmatically included by the maven-tiles plugin at build-time, merging with the original Maven POM (including parent POMs).

This system dramatically reduces duplication among NGSS projects by defining common, recommended, and standard build configurations in reusable components. Instead of maintaining identical configurations across multiple projects or complex parent POM hierarchies, teams can selectively include only the tiles they need.

Key Benefits

  • DRY Principle: Eliminates duplication of common build configurations

  • Standardization: Ensures consistent NGSS conventions across all projects

  • Flexibility: Allows selective inclusion of specific functionality without inheriting unwanted configurations

  • Maintainability: Centralizes configuration updates in one location

  • Composability: Enables fine-grained control over build behavior through tile combinations

How NGSS Uses Maven Tiles

NGSS leverages Maven Tiles to define standard sets of Maven plugin configurations that provide an easy way to apply NGSS conventions for various Maven plugins throughout the ecosystem. The tiles cover several key areas:

Container Build Support

  • Docker Integration: Docker Maven Plugin configurations for containerization

  • Jib Support: Google Jib plugin configurations for efficient container builds

  • Base Image Standards: Standardized base images and container configurations

DevOps Integration

  • CI/CD Generation: Automated Jenkinsfile generation for build pipelines

  • Kubernetes Manifests: Automated generation of Kubernetes deployment artifacts

  • Helm Charts: Development tooling for Kubernetes deployments with dependencies

  • Documentation: Automated README and deployment documentation generation

Project Artifacts

  • V&V Automation: Automated V&V process documentation and validation

  • DIBR Generation: Deployment Information and Build Record generation

  • Metadata Processing: Metadata generation and validation

Build Conventions

  • OpenAPI Integration: Swagger/OpenAPI client and service code generation

  • Service Templates: Standardized project structure and configuration templates

  • Test Coverage: JaCoCo configurations for unit tests, integration tests, and aggregate reporting

Tile Categories

The NGSS tiles are organized into several categories. Click on each category for detailed documentation of all tiles in that category:

Base Configuration Tiles

Foundation tiles that provide core functionality

  • base-docker-tile: Base container build configuration

  • java-11-tile: Java 11 compilation and runtime configuration

  • spring-properties-tile: Spring Framework specific properties

Testing and Coverage Tiles

Comprehensive testing framework and code coverage configurations

  • failsafe-tile: Integration test execution

  • surefire-tile: Unit test execution

  • all-tests-with-coverage-tile: Complete testing solution

  • JaCoCo coverage tiles (jacoco-base-tile, jacoco-unit-tests-tile, jacoco-integration-tests-tile, etc.)

Container Build Tiles

Docker and Jib container build configurations

  • docker-maven-plugin-tile / docker-maven-plugin-baseless-tile: Docker build support

  • jib-maven-plugin-tile / jib-maven-plugin-baseless-tile: Efficient Jib builds

  • web-docker-tile: Web application containers

Code Generation Tiles

Automated code and documentation generation

  • openapi-client-generator-tile: API client generation

  • openapi-java-service-generator-tile: Java service generation

  • effective-metadata-generator-tile: Metadata processing

  • deployment-readme-generator-tile: Documentation generation

Build Convention Tiles

Standardized NGSS build conventions and aggregated functionality

  • ngss-service-build-conventions-tile: Language-agnostic build standards

  • ngss-java-service-build-conventions-tile: Complete Java service conventions

  • ngss-code-quality-standards-tile: Code quality enforcement

DevOps and Deployment Tiles

CI/CD integration and deployment automation

  • jenkinsfile-generator-tile: CI/CD pipeline generation

  • kubernetes-generator-tile: Kubernetes manifest generation

  • helm-tile: Local development and integration testing

  • vv-automation-tile: V&V process automation

Usage Example

To use NGSS Maven Tiles in a project, configure the tiles-maven-plugin:

<project>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>io.repaint.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>tiles-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${tiles-maven-plugin.version}</version>
                <extensions>true</extensions>
                <configuration>
                    <tiles>
                        <tile>gov.va.mobile.tools.maven:helm-tile:${ngss-maven-tiles.version}</tile>
                        <tile>gov.va.mobile.tools.maven:docker-maven-plugin-tile:${ngss-maven-tiles.version}</tile>
                        <tile>gov.va.mobile.tools.maven:ngss-service-build-conventions-tile:${ngss-maven-tiles.version}</tile>
                    </tiles>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Tile Operation

Maven Tiles work by dynamically inserting each tile into the Maven project model as new parent POMs in the order specified. This creates an inheritance hierarchy where later tiles can override or extend earlier configurations, providing powerful composition capabilities while maintaining Maven’s standard inheritance model.