Getting started with Apache Maven

Remarks#

As described by its official Start Guide:

Maven is an attempt to apply patterns to a project’s build infrastructure in order to promote comprehension and productivity by providing a clear path in the use of best practices.

Maven is essentially a project management and comprehension tool and as such provides a way to help with managing:

• Builds
• Documentation
• Reporting
• Dependencies
• Version Control
• Releases
• Distribution

Hence, supporting developers across many phases of the whole Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

This philosophy is part of Maven in its core: i.e., the word maven means accumulator of knowledge (in Yiddish).

Maven is about the application of patterns in order to achieve an infrastructure which displays the characteristics of visibility, reusability, maintainability, and comprehensibility.

• Maven was born of the very practical desire to make several projects work in the same way, as stated by the official Maven philosophy statement.
• Developers could freely move between projects, knowing clearly how they all worked by understanding how one of them worked
• The same idea extends to testing, generating documentation, generating metrics and reports, and deploying

Versions#

Installation or Setup

Binary releases of Maven can be downloaded from the Maven website.

The binary comes as a zip archive or as a tar.gz archive. After downloading it, the instructions from the install page can be followed:

• Ensure the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set and points to your JDK installation (not JRE). For example, on a Windows machine, this installation folder can correspond C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_51.
• Extract the distribution archive in the directory of your choice.
• Add the bin directory of the created directory (named apache-maven-3.3.9 for Maven 3.3.9) to the PATH environment variable. (Reference to change it on Windows).
• Verify that the set-up is correct by running mvn -version on the command line.

There is no need to set the M2_HOME or MAVEN_HOME environment variable.

Installation on Ubuntu

1. In a terminal run sudo apt-get install maven

2. Once the install is over check that it works correctly with mvn -v the output should look like:

   Apache Maven 3.3.9
   Maven home: /usr/share/maven
   Java version: 1.8.0_121, vendor: Oracle Corporation
   Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
   Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
   OS name: "linux", version: "4.8.0-parrot-amd64", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

If this does not work, make sure you have a JDK installed in your environmentjavac -version

Configuring Proxy Settings

If your Internet connection is provided via a proxy Maven will not be able to download jars from remote repositories - a common problem faced by companies.

To solve this, Maven needs to be provided the details and credentials of the proxy by going to {Maven install location} → conf → settings.xml. Scroll down to the <proxies> tag and enter the details here, using the format mentioned in the comments.

For Eclipse users

Eclipse uses it’s own settings.xml file for running Maven, whose location can be found by going to the menu Window → Preferences → Maven → User Settings → User Settings:. If the file is not available in the location mentioned, simply create it yourself or create a duplicate of the file from the above location {Maven install location} → conf → settings.xml.

For IntelliJ users

Open the settings and navigate to Maven -> Importing. (This may be nested under Build, Execution, Deployment -> Build Tools ->, depending on the IntelliJ version you’re using.)

Set the field named “VM options for importer” like:

-DproxySet=true -DproxyHost=<HOST> -DproxyPort=<PORT>    
-DproxySet=true -DproxyHost=myproxy.com -DproxyPort=8080

Apply and restart IntelliJ.

Installation on Mac OSX with Brew

1. In a terminal run brew install maven
2. Once the install is over check that maven works correctly with mvn -v. The output should look something like:

Apache Maven 3.3.9 
Maven home: /usr/local/Cellar/maven/3.3.9/libexec
Java version: 1.8.0_121, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.12.4", arch: "x86_64", family: "mac"

If this does not work, make sure you have a JDK installed in your environment javac -version