Maven Assemblies | {"Mat's Random Thoughts"}

Due to requests I received for source code for my open source file parser project (http://www.javaforge.com/project/2066), I had to quickly figure out a way to package a zip file that would contain

– source code

– binary jar file

– javadocs

– license and release-changes text files.

Since I am using Maven, I found that assemblies can come to my help. Thought I’d jot down a few things here so that others can google to it and find the same.

I created a file src/main/assemply/src.xml. This contained a list of artifacts I wanted to package as a zip. The XML should be self-explanatory.

 &lt;assembly&gt;
      &lt;id&gt;dist&lt;/id&gt;
      &lt;formats&gt;
           &lt;format&gt;zip&lt;/format&gt;
      &lt;/formats&gt;
      &lt;baseDirectory&gt;flatfilereader&lt;/baseDirectory&gt;
      &lt;includeBaseDirectory&gt;true&lt;/includeBaseDirectory&gt;
      &lt;fileSets&gt;
           &lt;fileSet&gt;
                &lt;directory&gt;target&lt;/directory&gt;
                &lt;outputDirectory&gt;&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                &lt;includes&gt;
                     &lt;include&gt;*.jar&lt;/include&gt;
                &lt;/includes&gt;
           &lt;/fileSet&gt;
           &lt;fileSet&gt;
                &lt;directory&gt;docs&lt;/directory&gt;
                &lt;outputDirectory&gt;&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                &lt;includes&gt;
                     &lt;include&gt;*.doc&lt;/include&gt;
                &lt;/includes&gt;
           &lt;/fileSet&gt;
           &lt;fileSet&gt;
                &lt;directory&gt;target/site&lt;/directory&gt;
                &lt;outputDirectory&gt;&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                &lt;includes&gt;
                     &lt;include&gt;**/*&lt;/include&gt;
                &lt;/includes&gt;
           &lt;/fileSet&gt;
           &lt;fileSet&gt;
                &lt;directory&gt;src/main/resources&lt;/directory&gt;
                &lt;outputDirectory&gt;&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                &lt;includes&gt;
                     &lt;include&gt;license.txt&lt;/include&gt;
                     &lt;include&gt;release-changes.txt&lt;/include&gt;
                &lt;/includes&gt;
           &lt;/fileSet&gt;
      &lt;/fileSets&gt;
 &lt;/assembly&gt;

</formats>

<baseDirectory>flatfilereader</baseDirectory>

<directory>target</directory>

</includes>

</fileSet>

</includes>

</fileSet>

<directory>target/site</directory>

</includes>

</fileSet>

<directory>src/main/resources</directory>

<include>license.txt</include>

<include>release-changes.txt</include>

</includes>

</fileSet>

</fileSets>

</assembly>

In my pom.xml I have the following under the build section.

 &lt;build&gt;
      &lt;plugins&gt;
           &lt;plugin&gt;
                &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-compiler-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                &lt;configuration&gt;
                     &lt;source&gt;1.5&lt;/source&gt;
                     &lt;target&gt;1.5&lt;/target&gt;
                &lt;/configuration&gt;
           &lt;/plugin&gt;
           &lt;plugin&gt;
                &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-source-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                &lt;configuration&gt;
                     &lt;outputDirectory&gt;target&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                     &lt;finalName&gt;&lt;/finalName&gt;
                     &lt;attach&gt;false&lt;/attach&gt;
                &lt;/configuration&gt;
                &lt;executions&gt;
                     &lt;execution&gt;
                          &lt;id&gt;make-source-jar&lt;/id&gt;
                          &lt;phase&gt;package&lt;/phase&gt;
                          &lt;goals&gt;
                               &lt;goal&gt;jar&lt;/goal&gt;
                          &lt;/goals&gt;
                     &lt;/execution&gt;
                &lt;/executions&gt;
           &lt;/plugin&gt;
           &lt;plugin&gt;
                &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-javadoc-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                &lt;configuration&gt;
                     &lt;outputDirectory&gt;target&lt;/outputDirectory&gt;
                &lt;/configuration&gt;
                &lt;executions&gt;
                     &lt;execution&gt;
                          &lt;id&gt;make-javadoc&lt;/id&gt;
                          &lt;phase&gt;package&lt;/phase&gt;
                          &lt;goals&gt;
                               &lt;goal&gt;javadoc&lt;/goal&gt;
                          &lt;/goals&gt;
                     &lt;/execution&gt;
                &lt;/executions&gt;
           &lt;/plugin&gt;
           &lt;plugin&gt;
                &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-assembly-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                &lt;configuration&gt;
                     &lt;descriptors&gt;
                          &lt;descriptor&gt;src/main/assembly/src.xml&lt;/descriptor&gt;
                     &lt;/descriptors&gt;
                &lt;/configuration&gt;
           &lt;/plugin&gt;
      &lt;/plugins&gt;
 &lt;/build&gt;

<build>

<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>

</configuration>

</plugin>

<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

<artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>

<outputDirectory>target</outputDirectory>

<attach>false</attach>

</configuration>

<id>make-source-jar</id>

<phase>package</phase>

<goals>

</goals>

</execution>

</executions>

</plugin>

<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

<artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>

<outputDirectory>target</outputDirectory>

</configuration>

<id>make-javadoc</id>

<phase>package</phase>

<goals>

<goal>javadoc</goal>

</goals>

</execution>

</executions>

</plugin>

<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>

<descriptor>src/main/assembly/src.xml</descriptor>

</descriptors>

</configuration>

</plugin>

</plugins>

</build>

Once this is done, running command “mvn assembly:assembly” will trigger the build and the creation of my distributable file as target\flatfilereader-0.6-dist.zip