Leveraging maven in eclipse: Full use of these tools

Introduction: Maven will be recognized as a common build system, and it will go beyond Java technology. Instead of being a MAVEN tutorial, this article compares maven with other technologies to give you insight into where Maven fits into Eclipse and how to make these tools work together.

In the past few years, Maven has been more than just a buzzword in the Java world. Since 2001, Maven has been a pioneer in the field of building tools. In recent years, people have used it to compare with Ant. Because Maven and Ant have some obvious similarities, it seems natural to compare them to each other. For example, in both cases, XML scripts are available, both tools can produce artifacts, and they can share the same taxonomies and concepts, such as project, Target (target) and goal (goal), and dependencies (depends) and Prerequisites (PREREQS). But there is a big difference in substance. Ant is just an XML scripting tool, and Maven is a common build tool that focuses on a concept called the Project object Model (POM). POM exposes coarse-grained, build-oriented tasks called targets that provide guidelines that help you develop build methods and implement best practices.

In some ways, Maven belongs to the Software Factory tool family (see Resources), although it is still outside. Rather, building tools such as Maven are essential in the area of software factories.

Software Factory

By significantly increasing the level of automated development, a software factory provides a less costly and more flexible approach to application development. According to the Software factories Web site, "A software factory is a software product line that configures some extensible development tools based on the method of building a particular kind of application ..." Provide packaged content ... and guidance "(see Resources). The Software factory covers three key concepts:

Schema, which provides metadata that describes the structure of the different artifacts that make up the application, and how they interact.

One or more templates that provide the Launcher Toolbox and anything else you need to build your application.

An extensible development environment for configuring, customizing, and assembling components.

Today, such tools have gradually attracted the attention of tool makers, tool developers, and software editors who recognize their value. These tools promote the industrialization of the software development process, reducing the cost and time to market, while also increasing productivity and accelerating response to evolving needs.