MavenArchetypeExample

This is an example Custom Maven Archetype that provides the following:

• JUnit 4.4
• Guava 13.0.1

How was this created?

This was created by generating a standard Maven project (from Eclipse or Intellij) with the above dependencies. Running the following command generates the archetype:

mvn archetype:create-from-project

in the target directory.

This project is the result of the archetype created in the target/generated-sources/archetype folder

How do I use this?

Git clone the repository:

    git clone git@github.com:jph98/mae.git

Install it into your local Maven repository:

    mvn install

If all goes well you can generate a new project using this archetype with:

    mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=local -DarchetypeGroupId=com.froyo -DarchetypeArtifactId=exampleproject-archetype -DarchetypeVersion=1.0 -DinteractiveMode=false -DgroupId=com.froyo -DartifactId=myfirstproject -Dpackage=com.froyo

An explanation of the parameters here:

• archetypeCatalog - specifies to use the local Maven catalog to locate the archetype
• archetypeGroupId - the group id I used for the archetype
• archetypeArtifactId - the artifact id I used for the archetype
• archetypeVersion - the version I used for the archetype
• interactiveMode - don't prompt for the above, do it in batch mode
• groupId - the group id YOU want to use (customise as you like)
• artifactId - the artifact id YOU want to use (customise as you like)
• pacakge - the package you want to use (customise as you like)

How do customise this further?

Download this project and look at the general structure of the project.

A good starting point is the Main.java class in the archetype-resources folder. It contains a number of Velocity tags that are used replaced by Maven during the project creation process.

    #set( $symbol_pound = '#' )
    #set( $symbol_dollar = '$' )
    #set( $symbol_escape = '\' )
    package ${package};

Package in this case comes from the parameter passed in when you create a new project.

You might want to try the following from here:

• Adding more dependencies to the pom.xml to specify a more complete starter project (Mockito, log4j etc...)
• Adding a standard properties/yaml file in src/main/resources
• Customise the package structure where the source files are found
• Add the standard Maven plugins you need for your project
• Add custom repositories you require

The archetype-metadata.xml provides a list of filtering that occurs during project generation also. The following extract creates the src/test/java directory.

    <fileSet filtered="true" encoding="UTF-8">
      <directory>src/test/java</directory>
      <includes>
        <include>**/*.java</include>
      </includes>
    </fileSet>

Creating a new project in Eclipse

• Install the archetype in local repository with mvn install
• Go to Preferences > Maven > Archetypes and Add Local Catalog
• Select the catalog from file (archetype-catalog.xml)
• Create new Maven project and select the archetype (remember so select Include snapshot archetypes).