Archetype creation
Creating an archetype from an existing project involves three steps:
- the archetype resolution
- the archetype installation:deployment
- the archetype usage
Usage
Calling mvn archetype:create-from-project the plugin first resolves the package by guessing the project directory.
It then generates the directory tree of the archetype in the target/generated-sources/archetype directory.
mvn archetype:create-from-project [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'archetype'. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building project [INFO] task-segment: [archetype:create-from-project] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Preparing archetype:create-from-project [INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping [INFO] Setting property: classpath.resource.loader.class => 'org.codehaus.plexus.velocity.ContextClassLoaderResourceLoader'. [INFO] Setting property: velocimacro.messages.on => 'false'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.loader => 'classpath'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.manager.logwhenfound => 'false'. [INFO] [archetype:create-from-project] [INFO] Setting default archetype's groupId: com.company [INFO] Setting default archetype's artifactId: project [INFO] Setting default archetype's version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT [INFO] Setting default groupId: com.company [INFO] Setting default artifactId: project [INFO] Setting default version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT [INFO] Setting default package: com.company.project [INFO] Archetype created in target/generated-sources/archetype [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 4 seconds [INFO] Finished at: Fri Feb 22 21:49:52 GMT 2008 [INFO] Final Memory: 10M/26M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then move to that generated directory and call mvn install on the created archetype.
$ cd target/generated-sources/archetype/ $ mvn install [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building project [INFO] task-segment: [install] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] [resources:resources] [INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources. [INFO] [resources:testResources] [INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources. [INFO] Setting property: classpath.resource.loader.class => 'org.codehaus.plexus.velocity.ContextClassLoaderResourceLoader'. [INFO] Setting property: velocimacro.messages.on => 'false'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.loader => 'classpath'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.manager.logwhenfound => 'false'. [INFO] [archetype:jar] [INFO] [archetype:add-archetype-metadata] [INFO] [archetype:integration-test] [INFO] [install:install] [INFO] Installing /home/local/rafale/projects/tmp/project/target/generated-sources/archetype/target/project-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar to /home/rafale/.m2/repository/com/company/project/1.0-SNAPSHOT/project-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar [INFO] [archetype:update-local-catalog] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 10 seconds [INFO] Finished at: Fri Feb 22 21:51:57 GMT 2008 [INFO] Final Memory: 14M/35M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally move to a fresh directory and use your archetype.
$ mkdir /tmp/archetype $ cd /tmp/archetype $ mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeCatalog=local [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'archetype'. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building Maven Default Project [INFO] task-segment: [archetype:generate] (aggregator-style) [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Preparing archetype:generate [INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping [INFO] Setting property: classpath.resource.loader.class => 'org.codehaus.plexus.velocity.ContextClassLoaderResourceLoader'. [INFO] Setting property: velocimacro.messages.on => 'false'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.loader => 'classpath'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.manager.logwhenfound => 'false'. [INFO] [archetype:generate] Choose archetype: 1: local -> project (project) Choose a number or apply filter (format: [groupId:]artifactId, case sensitive contains): 1:
Testing
The user can provide archetype test projects by placing them in src/it/projects folder of their project. Upon creating archetype from the existing project all the test projects will be executed to verify the archetype created by this project is good. Read more about testing maven archetype.
Configuration
The create-from-project goal enable the user to provide some sensible configuration using the system properties or a property file.
The system properties permits the user to define the groupId, artifactId, version of the created archetype. They also permits to override the resolved package and to create a partial archetype.
When used, the property file takes precedence over the system properties. It is also the only way to define additional properties in the archetype.
Post-generation script
If the user wants to customize the generated project even further, a groovy script named archetype-post-generate.groovy can be added in src/main/resources/META-INF/. This script will end up in the generated archetype's META-INF folder and will be executed upon creating a project from this archetype. This groovy script has access to the ArchetypeGenerationRequest object, as well as all the System.getProperties() and all the archetype generation properties the user has specified.