Working With Maven Projects In Oracle JDeveloper

Written by Dana Singleterry, Oracle Corporation
Updated December 2007

Introduction
Required Software
Downloading and Installing Maven 2.0.7
Downloading and Installing the Maven JDeveloper Plugin
Downloading the Trinidad Source Using Subversion Integration with JDeveloper
Install Trinidad
Run Maven from within JDeveloper to Create a JDeveloper Workspace (.jws) and Project (.jpr)
Adding Code Insight for pom.xml
Run the Trinidad Demo Application
Conclusion

This document explains how-to work with Oracle JDeveloper on Maven-based projects. As an example we'll use the MyFaces Trinidad project code, and utilize the Maven 2.0.7 distribution and the Maven plugin for Oracle JDeveloper to create a JDeveloper project that will allow us to view the sources and run the application.

NEW! You can also work through this tutorial utilizing JDeveloper 11 TP3 and the Maven JDeveloper Plugin 1.2.5.

Introduction

Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.

Maven's primary goal is to allow a developer to comprehend the complete state of a development effort in the shortest period of time. In order to attain this goal there are several areas of concern that Maven attempts to deal with:

• Making the build process easy
• Providing a uniform build system
• Providing quality project information
• Providing guidelines for best practices development
• Allowing transparent migration to new features

Much of Maven's power comes from the standard practices it encourages. Time need not be wasted reinventing directory structures, conventions, and customized Ant build scripts for each project. Although you can override any particular directory location for your own specific needs, it's best to stick with the standard Maven 2 directory structure as much as possible, for several reasons:

• It makes your POM file smaller and simpler
• It makes the project easier to understand
• It makes it easier to integrate plug-ins

The standard Maven 2 directory structure is illustrated here. In the project home directory goes the POM (pom.xml) and two subdirectories: src for all source code and target for generated artifacts.

The src directory has a number of subdirectories, each of which has a clearly defined purpose:

• src/main/java: Your Java source code goes here (strangely enough!)
• src/main/resources: Other resources your application needs
• src/main/filters: Resource filters, in the form of properties files, which may be used to define variables only known at runtime
• src/main/config: Configuration files
• src/main/webapp: The Web application directory for a WAR project
• src/test/java: Unit tests
• src/test/resources: Resources to be used for unit tests, but will not be deployed
• src/test/filters: Resources filters to be used for unit tests, but will not be deployed
• src/site: Files used to generate the Maven project Website

Required Software

Downloading and Installing Maven 2.0.7

Download the appropriate Maven 2.0.7 distribution and install as follows for Windows 2000/XP:

1. Unzip maven-2.0.7-bin.zip to the directory you wish to install Maven 2.0.7. These instructions assume you chose C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\maven-2.0.7
2. Add the bin directory to your path, by opening up the system properties (WinKey + Pause), selecting the "Advanced" tab, and the "Environment Variables" button, then editing the PATH variable in the user variables. e.g. "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\maven-2.0.7\bin";%PATH%
3. In the same dialog, make sure that JAVA_HOME is set to the location of your JDK, e.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_02
4. Run mvn --version to verify that it is correctly installed.
5. To create the Maven repository, you select the /bin directory of the Maven download and type mvn install. Note that if your Internet access is through a firewall, you need to create an additional configuration file (settings.xml) as explained in the documentation.

To create the Maven repository, select the /bin directory of the Maven download and run mvn install.

Downloading and Installing the Maven JDeveloper Plugin

The Maven Plugin for Oracle JDeveloper 10g  is used to generate JDeveloper workspace files (.jws) and JDeveloper project files (.jpr). The plugin defines a set of goals that are semantically similar to the targets in the Ant build tool. The plugin comprises:

• A project configuration file (project.xml) to define the project model
• A project.properties file to specify the project properties
• A plugin.jelly file to specify the different goals of the project
• A plugin.properties file to specify the plugin properties
• A JavaSourceTool.class class to generate java source directories.

To use the Maven JDeveloper Plugin, complete the following steps:

1. Download the Maven JDeveloper Plugin jar (1.2.0-7-may-snapshot) and corresponding .pom file.

• If using JDeveloper 11 TP3, download the Maven JDeveloper Plugin jar 1.2.5 and corresponding .pom file.

1. Copy the plugin and pom to your maven repository that you created previously. 

• maven-jdev-plugin-1.2-07-may-SNAPSHOT.jar

• maven-jdev-plugin-1.2-07-may-SNAPSHOT.pom

For example, if your Maven repository was created in the following location:
C:\{RepositoryHome}\.m2\repository\org\apache\myfaces\trinidadbuild\maven-jdev-plugin\1.2-07-may-SNAPSHOT
Copy both maven-jdev-plugin-1.2-07-may-SNAPSHOT.pom and maven-jdev-plugin-1.2-07-may-SNAPSHOT.jar as indicated above.

Downloading the Trinidad Source Using SubVersion Integration with JDeveloper

To demonstrate the process of working with the Maven JDeveloper plugin we'll use the source for the apache MyFaces Trinidad project.

The Trinidad JSF sources are available from the subversion source control (http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/myfaces/trinidad/trunk). You can check out the sources anyway you want. One way is to download and use Tortoise, another to use the JDeveloper Subversion Extension. In this how-to The JDeveloper Subversion extension will be used.

Install Trinidad

1. Ensure the Maven JDeveloper Plugin has been copied to the C:\trinidadrepos\plugins directory if it's not already there.
2. cd trinidad/plugins
   mvn install
3. cd ../trinidad
   mvn install

Run Maven from within JDeveloper to Create a JDeveloper Workspace (.jws) and Project (.jpr)

Begin the process by choosing External Tools in the Tools menu.


Select New from the External Tools Wizard.


Select External Program for Tool Type.


Enter the credentials above for Program Executable, Arguments, and Run Directory within the wizard for Step 2of 5: External Program Options.


Select Insert button for Run Directory within the wizard in Step 2of 5 and select Prompt with Label and enter an appropriate Label as a hint.


Select  Next.


Enter the credentials above for Caption for Menu Items and ToolTip Text within the wizard for Step 3 of 5: Display. Keep the default for Icon Location. Select Finish.


The New External Tools item of MvnGoal has now been created.

The new MvnGoal tool is now available in the Tools menu within JDeveloper. Select it to run the specified External Tool that has been created.


Results of running the MvnGoal from within JDeveloper.

Adding Code Insight for pom.xml in JDeveloper

• Download the maven-xsd
• Register the maven-xsd with JDeveloper under tools->preferences->xml schemas as illustrated here.

<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">

 ...
</project>

Run the Trinidad Demo Application

Conclusion