Maven Essentials: Get started with the essentials of Apache Maven and get your build automation system up and running quickly

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Maven Essentials

Chapter 1. Apache Maven Quick Start

Apache Maven is popular as a build tool. However, in reality, it goes beyond being just a build tool. It provides a comprehensive build management platform. Prior to Maven, developers had to spend a lot of time in building a build system. There was no common interface. It differed from project to project, and each time a developer moved from one project to another, there was a learning curve. Maven filled this gap by introducing a common interface. It merely ended the era of the build engineer.

In this chapter, we will talk about the following topics:

Installing and configuring Maven on Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows
IDE integration
Tips and tricks for using Maven effectively

Installing Apache Maven

Installing Maven on any platform is more than a straightforward task. At the time of writing this book, the latest version was 3.3.3, which is available for download at http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi. This version requires JDK 1.7.0 or above.

Tip

You should keep a note on the Java requirement for version 3.3.3, if you are planning to upgrade from versions 3.0.*, 3.1.*, or 3.2.*. Prior to Maven 3.3.x, the only requirement was JDK 1.5.0. or JDK 1.6.0 (for 3.2.*).

Apache Maven is an extremely lightweight distribution. It does not have any hard requirements on memory, disk space, or CPU. Maven itself is built on top of Java, and it would work on any operating system that runs Java virtual machine (JVM).

Installing Apache Maven on Ubuntu

Installing Maven on Ubuntu is a single line command. Proceed with the following steps:

Run the following apt-get command in the command prompt. You need to have the sudo privileges to execute this:
```
$ sudo apt-get install maven
```
This takes a few minutes to complete. Upon the completion of the installation, you can run the following command to verify the installation:
```
$ mvn -version
```

You should get an output similar to the following, if Apache Maven has been installed successfully:

$ mvn -version
Apache Maven 3.3.3
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 1.7.0_60, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "linux", version: "3.13.0-24-generic", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

Maven is installed under the /usr/share/maven directory. To check the directory structure behind the Maven installation directory, use the following command:
```
$ ls /usr/share/maven
bin  boot  conf  lib  man
```
Maven configuration files can be found at /etc/maven, which can be listed using the following command:
```
$ ls /etc/maven
m2.conf  settings.xml
```

If you don't want to work with the apt-get command, there is another way of installing Maven under any Unix-based operating system. We will discuss this in the next section. Since Mac OS X has a kernel built at the top of the Unix kernel, installing Maven on Mac OS X would be the same as installing it on any Unix-based operating system.

Installing Apache Maven on Mac OS X

Most of the OS X distributions prior to OS X Mavericks had Apache Maven preinstalled. To verify that you've got Maven installed in your system, try out the following command. If it does not result in a version, then it means you do not have it installed:

$ mvn –version

The following steps will guide you through the Maven installation process on Max OS X Yosemite:

First, we need to download the latest version of Maven. Throughout this book, we will use Maven 3.3.3, which was the latest version at the time of writing this book. Maven 3.3.3 ZIP distribution can be downloaded from http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi.
Unzip the downloaded ZIP file into /usr/share/java. You need to have the sudo privileges to execute this:
```
$ sudo unzip  apache-maven-3.3.3-bin.zip -d /usr/share/java/
```
In case you already have Maven installed in your system, use the following command to unlink. /usr/share/maven is only a symlink to the directory where Maven is installed:
```
$ sudo unlink /usr/share/maven
```
Use the following command to create a symlink to the latest Maven distribution that you just unzipped. You need to have the sudo privileges to execute this:
```
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/java/apache-maven-3.3.3  /usr/share/maven
```
Use the following command to update the value of the PATH environment variable:
```
$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/share/maven/bin
```
Use the following command to update (or set) the value of the M2_HOME environment variable:
```
$ export M2_HOME=/usr/share/maven
```

Verify the Maven installation with the following command:

$ mvn -version
  Apache Maven 3.3.3 (7994120775791599e205a5524ec3e0dfe41d4a06;   2015-04-22T04:57:37-07:00)
  Maven home: /usr/share/maven
  Java version: 1.7.0_75, vendor: Oracle Corporation
  Java home:   /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_75.jdk/Contents/Hom  e/jre
  Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
  OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.10.2", arch: "x86_64",   family: "mac"

If you get the following error while running the preceding command, it means you have another version of Maven running in your system, and the PATH system variable includes the path to its bin directory. If that is the case, you need to clean out the value of the PATH system variable by removing the path to the old Maven installation:
```
  -Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory system property is not   set. Check $M2_HOME environment variable and mvn script match.
```

Note

Maven can also be installed on Mac OS X with Homebrew. This video explains the installation process in detail—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTzLGcqUf8k

Installing Apache Maven on Microsoft Windows

First, we need to download the latest version of Maven. Apache Maven 3.3.3 ZIP distribution can be downloaded from http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi. Then, we need to perform the following steps:

Unzip the downloaded ZIP file into the C:\Program Files\ASF directory.
Set the M2_HOME environment variable and point it to C:\Program Files\ASF\apache-maven-3.3.3.
Verify the Maven installation with the following command on the command prompt:
```
mvn –version
```

Note

To know more about how to set the environment variables on Microsoft Windows, refer to http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm.

Configuring the heap size

Once you have Maven installed in your system, the very next step is to fine-tune it for an optimal performance. By default, the maximum heap allocation is 512 MB, which starts from 256 MB (-Xms256m to -Xmx512m). This default limit is not good enough to build a large, complex Java project, and it is recommended that you have at least 1024 MB of the maximum heap.

If you encounter java.lang.OutOfMemoryError at any point during a Maven build, then it is mostly due to a lack of memory. You can use the MAVEN_OPTS environment variable to set the maximum allowed heap size for Maven at a global level. The following command will set the heap size in any Unix-based operating system, including Linux and Mac OS X. Make sure that the value set as the maximum heap size does not exceed your system memory of the machine, which runs Maven:

$ export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m"

If you are on Microsoft Windows, use the following command:

$ set MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m

Here, -Xmx takes the maximum heap size and -XX:MaxPermSize takes the maximum Permanent Generation (PermGen) size.

Note

Maven runs as a Java process on JVM. As it proceeds with a build, it keeps on creating Java objects. These objects are stored in the memory allocated to Maven. This area of memory where Java objects are stored is known as heap. Heap is created at the JVM start and it increases as more and more objects are created up to the defined maximum limit. The -Xms JVM flag is used to instruct JVM about the minimum value that it should set at the time of creating the heap. The -Xmx JVM flag sets the maximum heap size.

PermGen is an area of memory managed by JVM, which stores the internal representations of Java classes. The maximum size of PermGen can be set by the -XX:MaxPermSize JVM flag.

When the Java virtual machine cannot allocate enough memory to Maven, it could result in an OutOfMemoryError. To know more about the Maven OutOfMemoryError, refer to https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/OutOfMemoryError.

Hello Maven!

The easiest way to get started with a Maven project is to use the generate goal of the archetype plugin to generate a simple Maven project. Maven archetypes are discussed in detail in Chapter 3, Maven Archetypes, and plugins are covered in Chapter 4, Maven Plugins.

Let's start with a simple example:

$ mvn archetype:generate 
            -DgroupId=com.packt.samples  
            -DartifactId=com.packt.samples.archetype 
            -Dversion=1.0.0 
            -DinteractiveMode=false

This command will invoke the generate goal of the Maven archetype plugin to create a simple Java project. You will see that the following project structure is created with a sample POM file. The name of the root or the base directory is derived from the value of the artifactId parameter:

com.packt.samples.archetype 
               |-pom.xml
               |-src
               |-main/java/com/packt/samples/App.java
               |-test/java/com/packt/samples/AppTest.java

The sample POM file will only have a dependency to the junit JAR file with test as the scope:

<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.packt.samples</groupId>
  <artifactId>com.packt.samples.archetype</artifactId>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <name>com.packt.samples.archetype</name>
  <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>3.8.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

The generated App.java class will have the following template code. The name of the package is derived from the provided groupId parameter. If you want to have a different value as the package name, then you need to pass this value in the command itself as -Dpackage=com.packt.samples.application:

package com.packt.samples;

/**
 * Hello world!
 *
 */
public class App 
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
        System.out.println( "Hello World!" );
    }
}

To build the sample project, run the following command from the com.packt.samples.archetype directory, where the pom.xml file exists:

$ mvn clean install

Convention over configuration

Convention over configuration is one of the main design philosophies behind Apache Maven. Let's go through a few examples.

A complete Maven project can be created using the following configuration file (pom.xml):

<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.packt</groupId>
  <artifactId>sample-one</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
</project>

Note

The Maven POM file starts with the <project> element. Always define the <project> element with the schema. Some tools can't validate the file without it:

<project xmlns=http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
         xmlns:xsi=………
         xsi:schemaLocation="…">

The pom.xml file is the heart of any Maven project and is discussed in detail in Chapter 2, Understanding the Project Object Model (POM). Copy the previous configuration element and create a pom.xml file out of it. Then, place it in a directory called chapter-01, and then create the following child directories under it:

chapter-01/src/main/java
chapter-01/src/test/java

Now, you can place your Java code under chapter-01/src/main/java and test cases under chapter-01/src/test/java. Use the following command to run the Maven build from where the pom.xml is:

$ mvn clean install

This little configuration that you found in the sample pom.xml file is tied up with many conventions:

Java source code is available at {base-dir}/src/main/java
Test cases are available at {base-dir}/src/test/java
The type of the artifact produced is a JAR file
Compiled class files are copied to {base-dir}/target/classes
The final artifact is copied to {base-dir}/target
http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2, is used as the repository URL.

If someone needs to override the default, conventional behavior of Maven, then it is possible too. The following sample pom.xml file shows how to override some of the preceding default values:

<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.packt</groupId>
  <artifactId>sample-one</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>

  <build>    
    <sourceDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDirectory>              
    <testSourceDirectory>${basedir}/src/test/java               
                                         </testSourceDirectory>     
    <outputDirectory>${basedir}/target/classes
                                             </outputDirectory>     
  </build>
</project>

Troubleshooting

If everything works fine, we should never have to worry about troubleshooting. However, most of the time this is not the case. A Maven build can fail for many reasons, some of which are under your control and also out of your control. Knowing proper troubleshooting tips helps you to pinpoint the exact problem. The following section lists some of the most used troubleshooting tips. We will expand the list as we proceed in this book.

Enabling Maven debug level logs

Once the Maven debug level logging is enabled, it will print all the actions that it takes during the build process. To enable debug level logging, use the following command:

$ mvn clean install –X

Building a dependency tree

If you find any issue with any dependency in your Maven project, the first step is to build a dependency tree. This shows where each dependency comes from. To build the dependency tree, run the following command against your project POM file:

$ mvn dependency:tree

The following shows the truncated output of the previous command executed against the Apache Rampart project:

[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Rampart - Trust 1.6.1-wso2v12
[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.1:tree (default-cli) @ rampart-trust ---
[INFO] org.apache.rampart:rampart-trust:jar:1.6.1-wso2v12
[INFO] +- org.apache.rampart:rampart-policy:jar:1.6.1-wso2v12:compile
[INFO] +- org.apache.axis2:axis2-kernel:jar:1.6.1-wso2v10:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.ws.commons.axiom:axiom-api:jar:1.2.11-wso2v4:compile (version managed from 1.2.11)
[INFO] |  |  \- jaxen:jaxen:jar:1.1.1:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.ws.commons.axiom:axiom-impl:jar:1.2.11-wso2v4:compile (version managed from 1.2.11)
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.geronimo.specs:geronimo-ws-metadata_2.0_spec:jar:1.1.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.geronimo.specs:geronimo-jta_1.1_spec:jar:1.1:compile
[INFO] |  +- javax.servlet:servlet-api:jar:2.3:compile
[INFO] |  +- commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient:jar:3.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- commons-codec:commons-codec:jar:1.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload:jar:1.2:compile

Viewing all the environment variables and system properties

If you have multiple JDKs installed in your system, you may wonder what is being used by Maven. The following command will display all the environment variables and system properties set for a given Maven project:

$ mvn help:system

The following is the truncated output of the previous command:

======================Platform Properties Details====================

=====================================================================
System Properties
=====================================================================

java.runtime.name=Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
sun.boot.library.path= /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_75.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib
java.vm.version= 24.75-b04
awt.nativeDoubleBuffering=true
gopherProxySet=false
mrj.build=11M4609
java.vm.vendor=Apple Inc.
java.vendor.url=http://www.apple.com/
guice.disable.misplaced.annotation.check=true
path.separator=:
java.vm.name=Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
file.encoding.pkg=sun.io
sun.java.launcher=SUN_STANDARD
user.country=US
sun.os.patch.level=unknown

========================================================
Environment Variables
========================================================

JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home
HOME=/Users/prabath
TERM_SESSION_ID=C2CEFB58-4705-4C67-BE1F-9E4179F96391
M2_HOME=/usr/share/maven/maven-3.3.3/
COMMAND_MODE=unix2003
Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/tmp/launch-w7NZbG/Render
LOGNAME=prabath
USER=prabath

Viewing the effective POM file

Maven uses default values for configuration parameters when they are not overridden in the configuration. This is exactly what we discussed under the Convention over configuration section. If we take the same sample POM file that we used before in this chapter, we can see how the effective POM file would look using the following command. This is also the best way to see what default values are being used by Maven:

$ mvn help:effective-pom

Note

More details about the effective-pom command are discussed in Chapter 2, Understanding the Project Object Model (POM).

Viewing the dependency classpath

The following command will list all the JAR files and directories in the build classpath:

$ mvn dependency:build-classpath

The following shows the truncated output of the previous command executed against the Apache Rampart project:

[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Rampart - Trust 1.6.1-wso2v12
[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.1:build-classpath (default-cli) @ rampart-trust ---
[INFO] Dependencies classpath:
/Users/prabath/.m2/repository/bouncycastle/bcprov-jdk14/140/bcprov-jdk14-140.jar:/Users/prabath/.m2/repository/commons-cli/commons-cli/1.0/commons-cli-1.0.jar:/Users/prabath/.m2/repository/commons-codec/commons-codec/1.2/commons-codec-1.2.jar:/Users/prabath/.m2/repository/commons-collections/commons-collections/3.1/commons-collections-3.1.jar

Key benefits

Explore the essentials of Apache Maven essentials to arm yourself with all the ingredients needed to develop a comprehensive build automation system

Identify the extension points in Apache Maven and learn more about them in-depth

Improve developer productivity by optimizing the build process with best practices in Maven using this compact guide

Description

Maven is the #1 build tool used by developers and it has been around for more than a decade. Maven stands out among other build tools due to its extremely extensible architecture, which is built on of the concept of convention over configuration. It’s widely used by many open source Java projects under Apache Software Foundation, Sourceforge, Google Code, and more. Maven Essentials is a fast-paced guide to show you the key concepts in Maven and build automation. We get started by introducing you to Maven and exploring its core concepts and architecture. Next, you will learn about and write a Project Object Model (POM) while creating your own Maven project. You will also find out how to create custom archetypes and plugins to establish the most common goals in build automation. After this, you’ll get to know how to design the build to prevent any maintenance nightmares, with proper dependency management. We then explore Maven build lifecycles and Maven assemblies. Finally, you will discover how to apply the best practices when designing a build system to improve developer productivity.

What you will learn

Comprehend the key concepts in Apache Maven

Build your own custom plugins and get to know how Maven extension points are used

Troubleshoot build issues with greater confidence

Optimize Maven's configuration settings

Write custom lifecycles and extensions

Get hands-on and create a Maven assembly

Explore the best practices to design a build system that improves developer productivity

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Albert Dec 18, 2023

Plugin chapter is gold!

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ANTONIO MENDOZA Jan 26, 2016

This book is easy to read and to follow even for a non-native English speaker. Concepts are well explained with real examples, which helps understanding the pros and cons of each implementation.The book teaches you step by step what is Maven, its components, and how it works. From the installation, to best practices, through concepts as how to customise the process of building your project.The best chapters are the 4th and the 5th, that allowed me to understand how Maven lifecycle works and the role that Maven plugins play inside Maven.This book goes beyond key concepts of Maven, with interesting tricks like “Deploying web applications to a remote Apache Tomcat Server”.I definitely recommend this book both if you want to learn maven, and if you want to update and consolidate your knowledge.

Amazon Verified review

Angelo Jul 20, 2016

Libro ben fatto, molto facile da leggere, con esempi pratici, veramente essential.Si legge velocemente e permette di avere subito strumenti a disposizione per poter cominciare.

Alexander J Heim May 16, 2016

It is clearly written and makes learning Maven easy.

Audun V. Nes Jun 28, 2016

I liked this one. Concepts are well explained, and many good examples.

Maven Essentials: Get started with the essentials of Apache Maven and get your build automation system up and running quickly

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