Build Loaders 

Build loaders are the means by which sbt resolves, builds, and transforms build definitions. Each aspect of loading may be customized for special applications. Customizations are specified by overriding the buildLoaders methods of your build definition’s Build object. These customizations apply to external projects loaded by the build, but not the (already loaded) Build in which they are defined. Also documented on this page is how to manipulate inter-project dependencies from a setting.

Custom Resolver 

The first type of customization introduces a new resolver. A resolver provides support for taking a build URI and retrieving it to a local directory on the filesystem. For example, the built-in resolver can checkout a build using git based on a git URI, use a build in an existing local directory, or download and extract a build packaged in a jar file. A resolver has type:

ResolveInfo => Option[() => File]

The resolver should return None if it cannot handle the URI or Some containing a function that will retrieve the build. The ResolveInfo provides a staging directory that can be used or the resolver can determine its own target directory. Whichever is used, it should be returned by the loading function. A resolver is registered by passing it to BuildLoader.resolve and overriding Build.buildLoaders with the result:

...
object Demo extends Build {
  ...
  override def buildLoaders =
    BuildLoader.resolve(demoResolver) ::
    Nil

  def demoResolver: BuildLoader.ResolveInfo => Option[() => File] = ...

}

API Documentation 

Relevant API documentation for custom resolvers:

Full Example 

import sbt._
import Keys._

object Demo extends Build
{
  // Define a project that depends on an external project with a custom URI
  lazy val root = Project("root", file(".")).dependsOn(
    uri("demo:a")
  )

  // Register the custom resolver
  override def buildLoaders =
    BuildLoader.resolve(demoResolver) ::
    Nil

  // Define the custom resolver, which handles the 'demo' scheme.
  // The resolver's job is to produce a directory containing the project to load.
  // A subdirectory of info.staging can be used to create new local
  //   directories, such as when doing 'git clone ...'
  def demoResolver(info: BuildLoader.ResolveInfo): Option[() => File] =
    if(info.uri.getScheme != "demo")
      None
    else
    {
      // Use a subdirectory of the staging directory for the new local build.
      // The subdirectory name is derived from a hash of the URI,
      //   and so identical URIs will resolve to the same directory (as desired).
      val base = RetrieveUnit.temporary(info.staging, info.uri)

      // Return a closure that will do the actual resolution when requested.
      Some(() => resolveDemo(base, info.uri.getSchemeSpecificPart))
    }

  // Construct a sample project on the fly with the name specified in the URI.
  def resolveDemo(base: File, ssp: String): File =
  {
    // Only create the project if it hasn't already been created.
    if(!base.exists)
      IO.write(base / "build.sbt", template.format(ssp))
    base
  }

  def template =  """
name := "%s"

version := "1.0"
"""
}

Custom Builder 

Once a project is resolved, it needs to be built and then presented to sbt as an instance of sbt.BuildUnit. A custom builder has type:

BuildInfo => Option[() => BuildUnit] 

A builder returns None if it does not want to handle the build identified by the BuildInfo. Otherwise, it provides a function that will load the build when evaluated. Register a builder by passing it to BuildLoader.build and overriding Build.buildLoaders with the result:

...
object Demo extends Build {
  ...
  override def buildLoaders =
    BuildLoader.build(demoBuilder) ::
    Nil

  def demoBuilder: BuildLoader.BuildInfo => Option[() => BuildUnit] = ...

}

API Documentation 

Relevant API documentation for custom builders:

Example 

This example demonstrates the structure of how a custom builder could read configuration from a pom.xml instead of the standard .sbt files and project/ directory.

... imports ...

object Demo extends Build
{
  lazy val root = Project("root", file(".")) dependsOn( file("basic-pom-project") )

  override def buildLoaders =
    BuildLoader.build(demoBuilder) ::
    Nil

  def demoBuilder: BuildInfo => Option[() => BuildUnit] = info =>
    if(pomFile(info).exists)
      Some(() => pomBuild(info))
    else
      None

  def pomBuild(info: BuildInfo): BuildUnit =
  {
    val pom = pomFile(info)
    val model = readPom(pom)

    val n = Project.normalizeProjectID(model.getName)
    val base = Option(model.getProjectDirectory) getOrElse info.base
    val root = Project(n, base) settings( pomSettings(model) )
    val build = new Build { override def projects = Seq(root) }
    val loader = this.getClass.getClassLoader
    val definitions = new LoadedDefinitions(info.base, Nil, loader, build :: Nil, Nil)
    val plugins = new LoadedPlugins(info.base / "project", Nil, loader, Nil, Nil)
    new BuildUnit(info.uri, info.base, definitions, plugins)
  }

  def readPom(file: File): Model = ...
  def pomSettings(m: Model): Seq[Setting[_]] = ...
  def pomFile(info: BuildInfo): File = info.base / "pom.xml"

Custom Transformer 

Once a project has been loaded into an sbt.BuildUnit, it is transformed by all registered transformers. A custom transformer has type:

TransformInfo => BuildUnit

A transformer is registered by passing it to BuildLoader.transform and overriding Build.buildLoaders with the result:

...
object Demo extends Build {
  ...
  override def buildLoaders =
    BuildLoader.transform(demoTransformer) ::
    Nil

  def demoTransformer: BuildLoader.TransformInfo => BuildUnit = ...

}

API Documentation 

Relevant API documentation for custom transformers:

Manipulating Project Dependencies in Settings 

The buildDependencies setting, in the Global scope, defines the aggregation and classpath dependencies between projects. By default, this information comes from the dependencies defined by Project instances by the aggregate and dependsOn methods. Because buildDependencies is a setting and is used everywhere dependencies need to be known (once all projects are loaded), plugins and build definitions can transform it to manipulate inter-project dependencies at setting evaluation time. The only requirement is that no new projects are introduced because all projects are loaded before settings get evaluated. That is, all Projects must have been declared directly in a Build or referenced as the argument to Project.aggregate or Project.dependsOn.

The BuildDependencies type 

The type of the buildDependencies setting is BuildDependencies. BuildDependencies provides mappings from a project to its aggregate or classpath dependencies. For classpath dependencies, a dependency has type ClasspathDep[ProjectRef], which combines a ProjectRef with a configuration (see ClasspathDep and ProjectRef). For aggregate dependencies, the type of a dependency is just ProjectRef.

The API for BuildDependencies is not extensive, covering only a little more than the minimum required, and related APIs have more of an internal, unpolished feel. Most manipulations consist of modifying the relevant map (classpath or aggregate) manually and creating a new BuildDependencies instance.

Example 

As an example, the following replaces a reference to a specific build URI with a new URI. This could be used to translate all references to a certain git repository to a different one or to a different mechanism, like a local directory.

buildDependencies in Global := {
  val deps = (buildDependencies in Global).value
  val oldURI = uri("...") // the URI to replace
  val newURI = uri("...") // the URI replacing oldURI
  def substitute(dep: ClasspathDep[ProjectRef]): ClasspathDep[ProjectRef] =
    if(dep.project.build == oldURI)
      ResolvedClasspathDependency(ProjectRef(newURI, dep.project.project), dep.configuration)
    else
      dep
  val newcp = 
    for( (proj, deps) <- deps.cp) yield
      (proj, deps map substitute)
  BuildDependencies(newcp, deps.aggregate)
}

It is not limited to such basic translations, however. The configuration a dependency is defined in may be modified and dependencies may be added or removed. Modifying buildDependencies can be combined with modifying libraryDependencies to convert binary dependencies to and from source dependencies, for example.

Contents

sbt Reference Manual
      1. Build Loaders