Java – How to create an empty multi module Maven project

javamaven

Right now I usually find a pom.xml file on the web that has a pom packaging and copy and paste it to create my parent project. Then I used to run archetype:create inside the parent directory to create sub modules but archetype:create has become deprecated since then.

Any recommendations on how to create new Maven multi-module projects?

Best Answer

The easiest way I've found to do this is to use the pom-root archetype to create the top-level pom and then repeatedly use archetype:generate to create each module individually. This will automatically add the modules to the root pom (aggregator) and set the root pom as the parent pom for each module (edit: apparently some archetypes can have a hard-coded parent, but it works for maven-archetype-quickstart).

Here's the breakdown:

Create the top-level root:

mvn archetype:generate \
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.codehaus.mojo.archetypes \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=pom-root \
-DarchetypeVersion=RELEASE

cd into your newly created root dir.

For each module:

mvn archetype:generate \
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart \
-DarchetypeVersion=RELEASE

Note that -DarchetypeVersion=RELEASE above will automatically use the latest version of the archetype. You may want to add -DgroupId=... to each of those commands to avoid repeating yourself.

Related Solutions

Java – How to create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
      <configuration>
        <archive>
          <manifest>
            <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
          </manifest>
        </archive>
        <descriptorRefs>
          <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
        </descriptorRefs>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

and you run it with

mvn clean compile assembly:single

Compile goal should be added before assembly:single or otherwise the code on your own project is not included.

See more details in comments.

Commonly this goal is tied to a build phase to execute automatically. This ensures the JAR is built when executing mvn install or performing a deployment/release.

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
    <archive>
      <manifest>
        <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
      </manifest>
    </archive>
    <descriptorRefs>
      <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
    </descriptorRefs>
  </configuration>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>make-assembly</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
      <phase>package</phase> <!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
      <goals>
        <goal>single</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

Java – Maven Modules + Building a Single Specific Module

Any best practices here?

Use the Maven advanced reactor options, more specifically:

-pl, --projects
        Build specified reactor projects instead of all projects
-am, --also-make
        If project list is specified, also build projects required by the list

So just cd into the parent P directory and run:

mvn install -pl B -am

And this will build B and the modules required by B.

Note that you need to use a colon if you are referencing an artifactId which differs from the directory name:

mvn install -pl :B -am

As described here:

Define modules list which shall be build in Maven multiproject build

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – How to create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven

Java – Maven Modules + Building a Single Specific Module

Related Topic