Using the Maven Source Plugin

When using an ordinary jar library, IDEs like Eclipse’s JDE don’t have enough information to display inline javadocs for referenced classes. You have to manually direct Eclipse to the library’s source code to take advantage of inline documentation. Maven’s source plugin provides a convenient solution to this problem. When building the library, the plugin creates a source jar containing the package’s source code. This source package can be installed or deployed into your repository. Maven’s eclipse plugin then adds the source package to the generated .classpath file.

This is how it works. Before installing or deploying your library, run the source plugin:

  mvn source:jar

Your next install or deploy call will take care of the rest. In the dependent project (the one using your library), run the eclipse plugin:

  mvn eclipse:eclipse

After refreshing the project in eclipse, you should now have access to inline documentation.

If you don’t want to run source:jar each time, you can attach the call to the build lifecycle’s package phase:

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>jar</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

After running mvn package, there should be a source package in your target directory.

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9 Responses to Using the Maven Source Plugin

Oleksandr says:

September 25, 2007 at 06:26

BTW, you can ommit default groupId for plugins: org.apache.maven.plugins

Santhosh says:

October 17, 2007 at 00:33

Thank you. Had been looking for this :) Works like a charm.

Zaid Fattuhi says:

November 18, 2008 at 00:22

Hi,

This will generate sources in separate jar. If somebody wantsto attach the source code with the original jar (not in a separate jar with -source classifier) then add the following to pom.xml

..

src/main/java

src/main/resources

…

Regards,
Zaid

Michal Chmielarz says:

January 13, 2009 at 13:04

Hi,

Zaid – could you explain a bit more what and where in pom.xml file should I put to pack sources in original jar?

Angelo Neuschitzer says:

April 1, 2009 at 07:57

To build a single .jar with sources do not use the maven-source-plugin. Use the following entry in the pom.xml:

${basedir}/src/main/resources

${basedir}/src/main/java

(If you want to use that for gwt / gxt you also have to construct a .gwt.xml in your src/main/resources… that you have to include in the target .gwt.xml)

Good Luck

Angelo

Angelo Neuschitzer says:

April 1, 2009 at 07:59

Ah, I see, the tags vanish here.
I posted the code here:
http://pastebin.com/f3164f918

Hope it helps.

Angelo

Jitesh says:

August 31, 2009 at 19:32

Hi Angelo,

So I went with the approach that you mentioned, what is happening is, the source is getting attached but then I dont see the package in the eclipse package explorer(of the project that is using the library).

Thanks,
Jitesh

mafr says:

August 31, 2009 at 20:01

Jitesh: Please try a “mvn eclipse:clean eclipse:eclipse” to generate new .classpath files (they reference the source packages). Then refresh your Eclipse project.

Mukesh Harshwal says:

May 5, 2011 at 06:27

I want to develop a maven plugin having two goals.Please help be for this and if possible then send me sample code.
Thanks in advance.