We Keep Coding

How can I get class files from Maven dependency into the target\classes folder

Is there any sort of Maven plugin that allows me to copy the class files for a dependency into the target\classes folder for my project? Currently I have to manually open the jar file that has the dependencies extract the package that I need to copy over and then copy it into the target\class folder for my project.
I need a way to do those ideally within the pom.xml file but I haven't been able to find a solution that works. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

This sounds like a terrible idea. If you want to include unpacked dependencies into your project, use the maven assembly plugin or the maven shade plugin.

Use the maven-dependency-plugin. Here is an example of how you can extract the content of a dependency JAR:
<project>
[...]
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1.2</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>unpack</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>unpack</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<artifactItems>
<artifactItem>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<type>jar</type>
<overWrite>false</overWrite>
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/alternateLocation</outputDirectory>
<destFileName>optional-new-name.jar</destFileName>
<includes>**/*.class,**/*.xml</includes>
<excludes>**/*test.class</excludes>
</artifactItem>
</artifactItems>
<includes>**/*.java</includes>
<excludes>**/*.properties</excludes>
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/wars</outputDirectory>
<overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
<overWriteSnapshots>true</overWriteSnapshots>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
[...]
</project>

below is the example to use of assembly pulgin and it works for me
below is the child pom plugin
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.4.2</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>my parent package statup class</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Parent pom plugin
<build>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>

Maven: copy paste WEB-INF into root after packaging copy folder

I have a project like this:
TestArt
-----------index.jsp
-----------pom.xml
-----------src
--------------main
------------------java/com/web/LoginServlet.java
------------------webapp/WEB-INF/classes/com/web/LoginServlet.class
-----------target
-----------------testproject-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war
-----------------testproject-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war.original
-----------------testproject-1.0-SNAPSHOT
----------------------------------META-INF
----------------------------------WEB-INF
---------------------------------------classes/com/web/LoginServlet.class
---------------------------------------lib (here are all the jars)
and pom.xml like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 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>
<groupId>com.util</groupId>
<artifactId>testproject</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>Test Project</name>
<url>https://test.com</url>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.4.2.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<dependencies>
...
</dependencies>
<properties>
<java.version>1.7</java.version>
<start-class>com.web.LoginServlet</start-class>
</properties>
<build>
<outputDirectory>${basedir}\src\main\webapp\WEB-INF\classes</outputDirectory>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals><goal>copy</goal></goals>
<configuration>
<artifactItems>
<artifactItem>
<groupId>com.github.jsimone</groupId>
<artifactId>webapp-runner</artifactId>
<version>8.0.30.2</version>
<destFileName>webapp-runner.jar</destFileName>
</artifactItem>
</artifactItems>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.2.2</version>
</plugin>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.maven.plugins/maven-compiler-plugin -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.8.0</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.7</source>
<target>1.7</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<defaultGoal>install</defaultGoal>
</build>
</project>
After I run mvn package it creates META-INF and WEB-INF folders inside root/target folder and also places .war files in there.
I want maven to also copy a WEB-INF folder from target into the root (TestArt) once the packaging is done. Is there any way to achieve it?

I really would recommend to spend time on fixing the original problem, but if you want:
Use Maven Antrun Plugin to copy a folder from one place to another, as described here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/694175/927493
The details of the copy command in Ant are explained here:
https://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/copy.html

Couldn't figure it out with Ant, so I used this answer. In my case it would look like this:
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.6</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>copy-resources</id>
<!-- here the phase you need -->
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>copy-resources</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<outputDirectory>${basedir}/WEB-INF</outputDirectory>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>target/testproject-1.0-SNAPSHOT/WEB-INF</directory>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</resource>
</resources>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
EDIT: This plugin copy pastes files one by one, instead of taking a folder and copy pasting it with all it files once. This leads to broken links between classes and directories and nothing seems to work. For now, I'm using the batch script:
xcopy "C:\...\Tomcat 8.5\webapps\TestArt\target\testproject-1.0-SNAPSHOT\WEB-INF" "C:\...\Tomcat 8.5\webapps\TestArt\WEB-INF\" /E /Y
Using this answer's Maven plugin:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>sign</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<exec executable="${basedir}\copy.bat">
</exec>
</tasks>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
I managed to achieve a desired result.
But if there are solutions in pure Maven that would copy a directory all at once, I'd love to hear them.

maven - how to compile code to jar file and not .class

I am trying to build a groovy project using maven. My packaging type is war file. Maven is building the project and putting all dependent libraries in WEB-INF/lib folder but it is compiling all code into class files and putting it into WEB-INF/classes folder. Is there a way I can tell maven to build jar file for my project also and put it into WEB-INF/lib folder.
My pom.xml looks like this :
<groupId>com.myproject</groupId>
<artifactId>ExampleProject</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>My Example Project</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<dependencies>
...
...
...
</dependencies>
<build>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/src/main/groovy</directory>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/*.groovy</exclude>
</excludes>
</resource>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
</resource>
</resources>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>add-source</id>
<phase>generate-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>add-source</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<sources>
<source>src/main/groovy</source>
<source>src/main/resources</source>
</sources>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>add-test-source</id>
<phase>generate-test-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>add-test-source</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<sources>
<source>src/test/groovy</source>
<source>src/test/resources</source>
</sources>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<finalName>master</finalName>
</build>

In these scenarios the usual approach is to you separate your library code in a different module that will be a dependency from your war module. For this suggestion you can see also how to generate jar and war both in project .
However if you still prefer to go with the solution you mention, you can do it with the following configuration in your pom
<configuration>
..
<attachClasses>true</attachClasses>
<archiveClasses>true</archiveClasses>
</configuration>
(see http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/war-mojo.html, and how to use class file from another war)

Avoid Maven profiles to generate duplicated jars

I'm new to Maven and I'm trying to configure Maven to generate 2 jars: one for development and one for production. The only difference between them is a config.properties file that have the database connection different so I thought I could use Maven profiles.
To my surprise I can't generate both files at once. When using profiles, each time you build you have to select the profile and a jar (in my case) will be created using the profile. The thing is that it will create 2 exactly equals jars, one without a classifier and one with the classifier (like myjar.jar and myjar-prod.jar) so if I want to generate the dev and the prod jar I have to create 4 jars (running first Maven with one profile and after that with another profile)
Why is this? Doesn't make any sense to me... but ok...
My question is:
Is there a way I could avoid the two jars from being generated? I mean, I want to have different profiles, and I have accepted (with grief) to execute multiple times the build process (one for each profile), could I avoid to have each time 2 jars and have only one without the classifier?
This is my pom.xml:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
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>
<groupId>com.p2p.</groupId>
<artifactId>LoadACHFiles</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<name>MyProject</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<build>
<finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3.2</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
<excludes>
<exclude>config-*.properties</exclude>
</excludes>
</resource>
</resources>
</build>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.oracle</groupId>
<artifactId>ojdbc</artifactId>
<version>1.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.jasypt</groupId>
<artifactId>jasypt</artifactId>
<version>1.9.0</version>
<type>jar</type>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>prod</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<!--<delete file="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>-->
<copy file="src/main/resources/config-prod.properties"
tofile="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>
</tasks>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.13</version>
<configuration>
<skip>true</skip>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>jar</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<classifier>prod</classifier>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>
</project>

If you are okay with having classified jars, you may do what you want without profiles, so you may have jars for all environments with a single build command. The key is to understand how Maven filtering works.
This is expanding on an answer I provided to a similar question. Start with that setup. Then:
Create config.properties in your src/main/resources, containing properties your app needs.
my.database.url=${database.url}
my.database.user=${database.user}
my.database.pw=${database.pw}
Now, create prod.properties and dev.properties in ${basedir}/src/main/filters holding appropriate values for each environment.
database.url=URL-for-dev
database.user=user-for-dev
database.pw=pw-for-dev
When you run mvn clean package, Maven will copy the contents of /src/main/resources, including config.properties, doing property replacement during the copy. Because there are multiple executions of both resources and jar plugins, Maven will create separate classified jar files. Each will contain a config.properties file, holding the correct properties for the environment. The filters will not end up in the built jars.

I made it removing the maven jar plugin in the profile section. Changed this:
<profile>
<id>prod</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<!--<delete file="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>-->
<copy file="src/main/resources/config-prod.properties"
tofile="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>
</tasks>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.13</version>
<configuration>
<skip>true</skip>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>jar</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<classifier>prod</classifier>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
For this:
<profile>
<id>prod</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<!--<delete file="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>-->
<copy file="src/main/resources/config-prod.properties"
tofile="${project.build.outputDirectory}/config.properties"/>
</tasks>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.13</version>
<configuration>
<skip>true</skip>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>

Maven: Copy resources to dynamic directory

I'm a Maven newbie and my project is finally compiling and running correctly.
On each run my project writes reports on a dynamic location created at runtime (username_timestamp) and sets a System.property called REPORTS_LOCATION with this location. After execution I would like to copy some static resources (style, images, js, etc) to this dynamic folder using a maven goal.
What I can't figure out is how to let Maven know about this dynamic location or access this System.property
I'm about ready to just let my project copy these resources to the directory but I figure I'll give it another try in case there is an easy/Maven way of doing this.
I've gotten as far as copying the resources to a hard coded location. Here is a snippet of the POM. I'm using Jbehave's Maven goals and they do execute in order
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jbehave</groupId>
<artifactId>jbehave-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${jbehave.core.version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>embeddable-stories</id>
<phase>integration-test</phase>
<configuration>
<includes>
<include>**/Stories.java</include>
</includes>
<excludes />
<metaFilters>
<metaFilter>${meta.filter}</metaFilter>
</metaFilters>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>run-stories-as-embeddables</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<!-- Copy the resources AFTER the execution is done -->
<execution>
<id>unpack-view-resources</id>
<phase>integration-test</phase>
<configuration>
<viewDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/java/project/reports/{NEED TO FEED DIRECTORY HERE}</viewDirectory>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>unpack-view-resources</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>

It sounds like you have a piece of Java code calculating {username_timestamp}, and you then want that code to be able to communicate the calculated {username_timestamp} back to Maven for use in later steps of its lifecycle. I'm not sure that this is possible. Instead, how about inverting the process, so that Maven produces the timestamp, and you consume it from your code? You can achieve this using a combination of build-helper-maven-plugin, Maven resource filtering, and Java code to load a properties file.
pom.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>junk</groupId>
<artifactId>junk</artifactId>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
<!--
Use build-helper-maven-plugin to generate a timestamp during the
initialize phase and store it as a property named "timestamp".
-->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.7</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>timestamp-property</id>
<phase>initialize</phase>
<goals>
<goal>timestamp-property</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<locale>en_US</locale>
<name>timestamp</name>
<pattern>yyyyMMDDHHmmssSSS</pattern>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>Main</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
<descriptorRefs>
<descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
</descriptorRefs>
<finalName>${pom.artifactId}</finalName>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<!--
Turn on resource filtering so that references to ${timestamp} in a
properties file get replaced with the value of the timestamp property.
-->
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</resource>
</resources>
</build>
</project>
src/main/resources/junk.properties
timestamp=${timestamp}
src/main/java/Main.java
import java.util.Properties;
public final class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Properties props = new Properties();
props.load(Main.class.getResourceAsStream("/junk.properties"));
System.out.println(props.getProperty("timestamp"));
}
}

Thanks a lot cnauroth, this worked like a charm. Here is my working updated POM in case it helps someone else
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/src/main/java/resources</directory>
<excludes><exclude>**/locale/**</exclude></excludes>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</resource>
</resources>
<plugins>
<!-- Use build-helper-maven-plugin to generate a timestamp during the initialize
phase and store it as a property named "mavenTimestamp". -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.7</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>timestamp-property</id>
<phase>initialize</phase>
<goals>
<goal>timestamp-property</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<locale>en_US</locale>
<name>mavenTimestamp</name>
<pattern>yyyyMMDDHHmmssSSS</pattern>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jbehave</groupId>
<artifactId>jbehave-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${jbehave.core.version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>embeddable-stories</id>
<phase>integration-test</phase>
<configuration>
<includes>
<include>**/Stories.java</include>
</includes>
<excludes />
<ignoreFailureInStories>true</ignoreFailureInStories>
<verboseFailures>true</verboseFailures>
<threads>5</threads>
<metaFilters>
<metaFilter>${meta.filter}</metaFilter>
</metaFilters>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>run-stories-as-embeddables</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<!-- THIS WORKS :) Copy the resources AFTER the execution is done -->
<execution>
<id>unpack-view-resources</id>
<phase>integration-test</phase>
<configuration>
<viewDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/java/project/reports/${mavenTimestamp}</viewDirectory>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>unpack-view-resources</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>

If you set the folder as an environment variable during the runtime, you can do the following:
just use
<properties>
<REPORTS_LOCATION><${env.REPORTS_LOCATION}></REPORTS_LOCATION>
</properties>
then you can reference to theproperty via ${REPORTS_LOCATION} in you pom