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This video introduces the standard directory layout for a Maven project. We demonstrate this by using Maven itself to create a starter project using the archetype feature.
Install tree on MacOS
Using Homebrew:
brew install tree
Using tree on Windows
Since Windows has a built-in tree feature, there should be nothing to install. You can start using it right away. See more here.
Maven, like other build
tools such as Gradle,
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has opinions on what a Java
project should look like.
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And though this can be configured
to your heart's desire,
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let's take a look at the standard
directory structure of a Maven project.
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Actually, I think the best way to
go about this would be to use Maven
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to create a project.
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Now I realize that if you're a Java
developer you likely have your favorite
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IDE, be it IntelliJ, Eclipse,
NetBeans, or what have you.
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However, in this workshop, in order to
maintain our focus on Maven, even though
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I'll do some coding in IntelliJ, I'll use
the terminal to run all Maven commands.
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But rest assured that all major IDEs
have nice plugins and support for Maven.
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So there are convenient menu options for
everything we'll do on the command line.
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Creating Maven projects is based
on the concept of an archetype.
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Think of an archetype as
a predefined template,
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like a blueprint from which
we can generate projects.
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So let's use our terminal here and
get started.
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The first thing I'll do is change
directories to the parent of where I want
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my project to be.
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For me, that's in Code/screencasts,
excellent.
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Next, to generate the project
we'll use the Maven command.
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That's abbreviated mvn followed by
the archetype plugins, archetype.
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The archetype plugins generate goal and
the -B option.
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More about plugins and goals later on.
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That -B option is for batch mode.
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It tells the plugin not to
ask questions along the way.
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We'll specify all our config
options in this command.
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And what are those config options?
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Well, they're system properties set for
the running of Maven,
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using the -D option to
define system properties.
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So we'll specify the groupId
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as com.teamtreehouse and
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the artifactId as file-spy.
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I'll tell you more about
the project in a moment.
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The group and artifact IDs help
categorize and identify your project,
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which is the main form of organization
of repositories like the ever popular
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Maven Central.
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Now this project will be creating in this
workshop will be a console application
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that spies on a directory,
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displaying messages in the console when
files of a certain type are added.
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We'll get to the code much later on.
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Okay, after pressing enter to run the
command, Maven will generate a Java Maven
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project with the standard directory
structure and relevant assets.
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On my machine, I have installed
a command line tool called tree
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that's super useful for displaying
directory trees in the terminal.
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I've put some info in
the teacher's notes for
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installing tree in case you're interested.
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So if I change directories to file-spy and
run the tree command,
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you'll see the directory structure
of the generated project right here.
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If you've done work in Gradle,
you are familiar with this structure.
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In any case,
inside our project's root directory,
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we have a source directory containing
main and test directories.
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Each of those contains a java directory,
which serves as the root directory for
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any source code in the main directory or
test code in the test directory.
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Inside those java directories we have
directories for our root package that was
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created when we specified
the group ID as com.teamtreehouse.
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If you have any resources like properties
files, they'll be in the main/resources
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directory and
the test/resources directory, like this.
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So let's make those directories.
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Src/test/resources.
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And with resources, your directory
structure will look like this.
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You'll have a resources directory under
main and a resources directory under test.
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If you haven't used
properties files in the past,
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then don't worry about
this resources directory.
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Now, once code is compiled,
you'll find the .class
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files in a directory name target
located in the projects root directory.
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So right under the root with pom.xml and
source directory,
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you'll see another directory called
target after you compile your code.
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And that's all there
is to a Maven project.
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Well, just kidding.
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Not even close.
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See this measly little file that I
skipped over in the project, the pom.xml?
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Turns out that this is
everything in Maven.
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Why don't you take a quick breather before
we dive into the all-important pom,
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which is a one-stop configuration file for
your entire Maven project.
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