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Serial execution of plugins in Maven using <phase>

I have the following structure in pom.xml:
<profile>
<id> x </id>
<build>
<finalName> y </finalName>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
<!-- DELETE SOME FOLDERS AND SOME FILES -->
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<!-- MOVE A FILE -->
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<version> 1.6 </version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase> <!-- WHAT COMES HERE ? --> </phase>
<configuration>
<!-- I EXECUTE CMD FILE HERE -->
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal> run </goal>
</goals>
<execution>
<executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
I want to achieve a serial execution for plugins:
Delete some folders and some files (1st plugin)
Move a file (2nd plugin)
Run cmd file (3rd plugin)
What should I use for <phase> to have the order above (sequential execution)? Is it relevant ? Is it ok to use pre-integration-test for example ?
P.S.: Here are the phases: http://maven.apache.org/ref/3.2.2/maven-core/lifecycles.html

Maven doesn't support adding steps to the life cycle (without writing a new plugin).
If you have complex build steps and you absolutely need a certain order and this order violates the standard life cycle, then Maven might not be the right tool for you. Consider Gradle instead.
If you have to use Maven, then stop using plugins for this. Instead, replicate all the build steps using the antrun plugin so everything is done with a single Ant script. Afterwards, find a place in the life cycle where you want all the steps to be executed at once.
generate-sources is a good place if you need something to be done before anything is compiled. If you want to run code after compilation and tests, use prepare-package.
See here for the complete life cycle: http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-the-lifecycle.html#Lifecycle_Reference

If you like to add the execution of different plugins to the same life cycle phase the execution order is defined by the order of the definition in the pom file.
So if you choose to bind all the above three plugins to the package phase than they will be executed in the given order.
You can of course use the antrun plugin which will work also and will implicit execute the steps in the defined order without thinking about the default behaviour of Maven.
You can also use the exec-maven-plugin to execute a script in a particular life cycle phase but which might be not a good solution cause the script is OS dependent. Or you can use the groovy plugin to execute some steps in groovy code.

Issue setting the class path in Maven exec plugin when running a Main Class

I have embedded Jetty in my application. In order to automatically execute my integration tests on my build server I'd like Maven to start my application in the pre-integration-test phase. The integration tests are in another project than the application te be tested, because the tests are of a quite complex nature and should be seperated from production code.
I have tried to set up my application using the Maven exec plugin, but keep running into ClassNotFoundErrors. I use the maven-dependency-plugin to copy all dependencies to target/lib/. Until now, I haven't been able to figure out how to tell the exec plugin to add that lib folder to the class path.
This is my current exec plugin configuration:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>default-cli</id>
<phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>java</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<mainClass>com.zertificon.managementCenter.adminUi.server.WebApp</mainClass>
<!-- this does not work: -->
<classpath>${project.build.directory}/${libFolder}/</classpath>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
The WebApp class I am trying to run originates from another Project and is installed in the local repository. I would highly apreciate any help.

Found the error: I have been using Jetty together with a Selenium Library that itself bundles Jetty, too. This lead to a wrong Jetty Version being loaded wich gave me class not found errors. Go figure.

Mechanics of Goal execution in Maven

I have the wsimport plugin in my project.
I would like to execute the wsimport. According to the website, the string to execute is "mvn jaxws:wsimport".
Firstly, is this string deductable from the XML ?
The artifact ID is :
<artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
and goal :
<goal>wsimport</goal>
so is the artifact-part just the substring of the artifactid leading up to "-maven-plugin" ?
..And when I execute my plugin goal "mvn jaxws:wsimport" does this completely ignore which phase I am in? Ie. is this running outside of the phase? And if no, is there a way to run this standalone?
ie. is there a way I can set the phase to none? (eg [phase]none[/phase]).
Pom code :
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jvnet.jax-ws-commons</groupId>
<artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>wsimport-from-jdk</id>
<goals>
<goal>wsimport</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>${tool.wsimport}</executable>
<wsdlUrls>
<wsdlUrl>http://WorkPC:8080/server-web/AirlineWS?wsdl</wsdlUrl>
</wsdlUrls>
<packageName>com.bluewalrus</packageName>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

When you issue a command like mvn [plugin]:[goal], it launches Maven out of any lifecycle, so if you do not intend to perform that goal inside a lifecycle, but only via such commands, you shouldn't have any <execution> defined, just place <configuration> right after <version>.
About how Maven can shorten the plugin call (i.e. mvn dependency:tree instead of mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.1:tree), it is based on several conventions:
When no version defined, it tries to take the latest from available repositories
When the groupId is omitted, it looks among the predefined or user-defined pluginGroups to find a suitable one. See here for more information (Configuring Maven to Search for Plugins)
On the same page, you can see how plugins prefixes are used to shorten the plugin prefix, by using a prefix instead of the artifactId of the plugin. Thirdparty plugins should use [prefix]-maven-plugin construction, and it looks OK here.
And to disable the default execution of a plugin (although it might not be useful in this case), you can use this answer

maven properties-maven-plugin doesn't work when deploying artifact to Nexus

I am using properties-maven-plugin to read a external property file under root dir to maintain the version of parent module since there are quite a number of sub-modules in my project and the dependency tree is kinda deep.
It works fine when I build locally and install the artifacts into local repo but got the 401 error when I try to use "mvn clean deploy" to publish them to Nexus. I am pretty sure this is caused by the ineligible artifact name(releaseurl/{external.version}), external.version is supposed to be the property read from the external file. However, it ended up not being read and it just worked fine when I explicitly declare the version in the project.parent.version tag. Any thoughts or workaround? or even how you handle the version control when trying to use same version for parent and child in all the modules when dealing with a multi-module porject.
The maven pom for the plugin is as below, I saw some comments online regarding the phase, not sure if it will work if change initialize to something else:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>properties-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>initialize</phase>
<goals>
<goal>read-project-properties</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<files>
<file>external-file.properties</file>
</files>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

Get sources of a snapshot dependency on Eclipse

Something bother me a lot...
On a big project with many dependencies, some of them are set as SNAPSHOT in Maven2.
The matter is that it seems i can't get the sources through Eclipse without loading the project or fixing the dependency to the last release.
For debugging, it's really annoying me...
EDIT
This is what i get in eclipse maven console:
26/08/10 11:31:46 CEST: Downloading http://repo-maven/archiva/repository/snapshots/com/blabla/1.1-SNAPSHOT/blabla-1.1-20100824.213711-80-javadoc.jar
26/08/10 11:31:47 CEST: Could not download sources for com.blabla:blabla:1.1-20100824.213711-80
On archiva i can see the deployed stuff i want to retrieve in eclipse...
Repository snapshots
Group ID com.blabla
Artifact ID blabla
Version 1.1-20100824.213711-80
Packaging jar
Parent com.blabla bla 1.1-SNAPSHOT (View)
Other Versions 1.1-20100824.213535-79
I can download sources of this artifact with my browser but not within Eclipse... Any idea?

The matter is that it seems I can't get the sources through Eclipse without loading the project or fixing the dependency to the last release. For debugging, it's really annoying me...
Well, these modules are probably not publishing source JARs as part of the "regular" build process (i.e. outside the release). If these modules are under your control (which is my understanding), configuring the Maven Source Plugin to produce source JARs for them and deploying them in your corporate repo should solve the problem. From the Usage page:
Installing the sources along with your artifact
There are two ways to do this. You can
either bind this plugin to a phase or
you can add it to a profile. The goals
source:jar-no-fork and
source:test-jar-no-fork are preferred
for binding the goal to the build
lifecycle.
Installing the sources using a phase binding
Here is how you would configure the
plugin in your pom.xml to run
automatically during the verify phase:
<project>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.1.2</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>attach-sources</id>
<phase>verify</phase>
<goals>
<goal>jar-no-fork</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
...
</project>
We are using the verify phase here
because it is the phase that comes
before the install phase, thus making
sure that the sources jar has been
created before the install takes
place.
Installing the sources using a profile
If you want to install a jar of your
sources along with your artifact
during the release process, you can
add this to your pom.xml file:
<project>
...
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>release</id>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.1.2</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>attach-sources</id>
<goals>
<goal>jar-no-fork</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>
...
</project>
Using a profile would probably be a good idea so that building source JARs will only be done by the build running at the CI server level but not on developer machines.