#1987: Fixed GUI not launching for snapshot versions

CHANGELOG.adoc

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ This file documents all notable changes to https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy[IDE
 
 Release with new features and bugfixes:
 
+* https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/1987[#1987]: Fixed issue that the GUI would not launch in SNAPSHOT versions. Added -l flag to allow extended logging for the GUI.
 
 The full list of changes for this release can be found in https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/milestone/47?closed=1[milestone 2026.07.002].
 

cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/gui/Gui.java

@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.commandlet.Commandlet;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.context.IdeContext;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.process.ProcessContext;
-import com.devonfw.tools.ide.process.ProcessContextImpl;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.process.ProcessMode;
+import com.devonfw.tools.ide.property.FlagProperty;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.ToolEditionAndVersion;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.ToolInstallRequest;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.ToolInstallation;
@@ -27,13 +27,16 @@ public class Gui extends Commandlet {
 
   private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Gui.class);
 
+  final FlagProperty enableExtendedLogging;
+
   /**
    * @param context the {@link IdeContext}.
    */
   public Gui(IdeContext context) {
 
     super(context);
     addKeyword(getName());
+    enableExtendedLogging = add(new FlagProperty("--enableLogging", false, "-l"));
   }
 
   @Override
@@ -45,7 +48,7 @@ public String getName() {
   @Override
   protected void doRun() {
 
-    ProcessContext processContext = new ProcessContextImpl(this.context);
+    ProcessContext processContext = context.newProcess();
 
     Java java = this.context.getCommandletManager().getCommandlet(Java.class);
     Mvn mvn = this.context.getCommandletManager().getCommandlet(Mvn.class);
@@ -58,9 +61,16 @@ protected void doRun() {
         new ToolEditionAndVersion(VersionIdentifier.of("25.*"))
     );
 
-    mvn.installTool(mavenToolInstallRequest);
+    ToolInstallation mvnToolInstallation = mvn.installTool(mavenToolInstallRequest);
     ToolInstallation javaInstallation = java.installTool(javaToolInstallRequest);
 
+    /* Register the freshly installed mvn on the IDEasy managed PATH so that the IDEasy controlled maven is used to launch
+     the GUI instead of any maven that happens to be on the system PATH. We install via installTool (software repository
+     only) and therefore have to register the bin directory ourselves (install() would normally do this). I tried to achieve this alternatively via .withPathEntry(), however, this did not work as expected.
+     This was tested on a Mac; potentially, withPathVariable() works correctly on Windows.
+    */
+    context.getPath().setPath(mvn.getName(), mvnToolInstallation.binDir());
+
     LOG.debug("Starting GUI via commandlet");
 
     Path pomPath = context.getIdeInstallationPath().resolve("gui/pom.xml");
@@ -69,9 +79,10 @@ protected void doRun() {
     }
 
     List<String> args = List.of(
-        "-f",
+        "-U", //required for latest snapshot versions
+        "-f", //use specified POM file
         pomPath.toString(),
-        "exec:exec",
+        "org.codehaus.mojo:exec-maven-plugin:3.1.0:exec",
         "-Dexec.executable=java",
         "-Dexec.classpathScope=compile",
         "-Dexec.args=-classpath %classpath com.devonfw.ide.gui.AppLauncher"
@@ -81,6 +92,13 @@ protected void doRun() {
      * We manually update the PATH entry with our java version, as by default IDEasy includes the SymLink under /projectname/software/java/bin in the PATH
      * In case of projects using older Java Versions, this is important as the java version of the project could potentially older.
      */
-    mvn.runTool(processContext.withPathEntry(javaInstallation.binDir()), ProcessMode.BACKGROUND_SILENT, args);
+    ProcessMode processMode = this.enableExtendedLogging.isTrue() ? ProcessMode.DEFAULT : ProcessMode.BACKGROUND_SILENT;
+    try {
+      mvn.runTool(processContext.withPathEntry(javaInstallation.binDir()), processMode, args);
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      LOG.error(
+          "Failed to launch the GUI. If maven states issues with dependency resolution, check whether the maven M2 repo is enabled in your project.",
+          e);
+    }
   }
 }

cli/src/main/package/gui/pom.xml

@@ -4,6 +4,21 @@
   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>
+
+  <repositories>
+    <repository>
+      <id>ossrh</id>
+      <name>OSSRH Snapshots</name>
+      <url>https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots</url>
+      <snapshots>
+        <enabled>true</enabled>
+      </snapshots>
+      <releases>
+        <enabled>false</enabled>
+      </releases>
+    </repository>
+  </repositories>
+
   <groupId>com.devonfw.tools.IDEasy</groupId>
   <artifactId>ide-gui-launcher</artifactId>
   <version>$[project.version]</version>
@@ -17,5 +32,4 @@
       <version>$[project.version]</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
-
 </project>

cli/src/main/resources/nls/Help.properties

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ cmd.gradle=Tool commandlet for Gradle (Build-Tool).
 cmd.gradle.detail=Gradle is a build automation tool for Java, Kotlin, and other JVM-based languages. Detailed documentation can be found at https://docs.gradle.org/
 cmd.gui=Tool commandlet for running the IDEasy GUI
 cmd.gui.detail=This command will run the GUI version of IDEasy, opening up a more comprehensible project dashboard and allowing for easier management of your local IDEasy instance.
+cmd.gui.opt.--enableLogging=Run the GUI with enabled logging to the terminal.
 cmd.helm=Tool commandlet for Helm (Kubernetes Package Manager).
 cmd.helm.detail=Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies deploying and managing applications. Detailed documentation can be found at https://helm.sh/docs/
 cmd.help=Prints this help.

cli/src/main/resources/nls/Help_de.properties

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ cmd.gradle=Werkzeug Kommando für Gradle (Build-Tool).
 cmd.gradle.detail=Gradle ist ein Build-Automatisierungstool für Java, Kotlin und andere JVM-basierte Sprachen. Detaillierte Dokumentation ist zu finden unter https://docs.gradle.org/
 cmd.gui=Werkzeug Kommando, um die GUI von IDEasy zu öffnen.
 cmd.gui.detail=Dieser Befehl startet die GUI-Version von IDEasy, öffnet ein übersichtlicheres Projekt-Dashboard und erleichtert die Verwaltung Ihrer lokalen IDEasy-Instanz.
+cmd.gui.opt.--enableLogging=Führe die GUI mit aktiviertem Debug-Logging auf das Terminal aus.
 cmd.helm=Werkzeug Kommando für Helm (Kubernetes Package Manager).
 cmd.helm.detail=Helm ist ein Paketmanager für Kubernetes, der das Bereitstellen und Verwalten von Anwendungen vereinfacht. Detaillierte Dokumentation ist zu finden unter https://helm.sh/docs/
 cmd.help=Zeigt diese Hilfe an.

cli/src/test/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/gui/GuiTest.java

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.gui;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import com.devonfw.tools.ide.context.AbstractIdeContextTest;
+import com.devonfw.tools.ide.context.IdeTestContext;
+import com.github.tomakehurst.wiremock.junit5.WireMockRuntimeInfo;
+import com.github.tomakehurst.wiremock.junit5.WireMockTest;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for {@link Gui}.
+ */
+@WireMockTest
+class GuiTest extends AbstractIdeContextTest {
+
+  private static final String PROJECT_GUI = "gui";
+
+  @Test
+  void testEnableLoggingUsesDefaultProcessMode(WireMockRuntimeInfo wmRuntimeInfo) {
+    // arrange
+    IdeTestContext context = newContext(PROJECT_GUI, wmRuntimeInfo);
+    Gui gui = new Gui(context);
+    gui.enableExtendedLogging.setValue(true);
+
+    // act
+    gui.run();
+
+    // assert: with ProcessMode.DEFAULT, process output is captured as INFO log
+    assertThat(context).logAtInfo().hasMessage("Scanning for projects...");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  void testDisabledLoggingUsesBackgroundSilentMode(WireMockRuntimeInfo wmRuntimeInfo) {
+    // arrange
+    IdeTestContext context = newContext(PROJECT_GUI, wmRuntimeInfo);
+    Gui gui = new Gui(context);
+    // enableExtendedLogging is false by default → ProcessMode.BACKGROUND_SILENT
+
+    // act
+    gui.run();
+
+    // assert: with ProcessMode.BACKGROUND_SILENT, process output is suppressed
+    assertThat(context).logAtInfo().hasNoMessage("Scanning for projects...");
+  }
+}

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/_ide/installation/gui/pom.xml

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<PlaceholderFile/>

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/_ide/urls/java/java/25.0.2/urls

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+${testbaseurl}/download/java/java/25.0.2/java-25.0.2.tgz

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/_ide/urls/mvn/mvn/3.9.0/urls

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+${testbaseurl}/download/mvn/mvn/3.9.0/mvn-3.9.0.tgz

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/project/home/.ide/ide.properties

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+MAVEN_VERSION=3.9.0

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/repository/java/java/default/bin/java

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+echo java $*

cli/src/test/resources/ide-projects/gui/repository/mvn/mvn/default/bin/mvn

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+echo "Scanning for projects..."