Some of the topics in this document refer to more general topics or improvements in the assembly descriptor as a whole. For more information, see the Advanced Assembly-Descriptor Topics page.
As you are no doubt aware, Maven 2.0 introduces advanced handling of multimodule builds. These are builds which contain multiple, often interrelated projects. In these builds, project hierarchy is established through use of the modules section of the POM, where parent POMs specify their children in a modules section. Other relationships, like interdependency, also exist within multimodule builds; however, these are beyond the scope of this document.
When constructing an assembly from any parent-level project in a multimodule build, it's possible to process this parent-POM's descendent modules, and include them in some form within the resulting assembly artifact. By default, the entire module hierarchy below the current project is available for inclusion or exclusion. Also, include/exclude patterns for modules are matched using the artifact-matching rules explained in the Advanced Assembly-Descriptor Topics document.
The following examples describe how to select certain modules in the project hierarchy using basic artifact includes/excludes. It does not describe what to do with the selected modules; to learn about the actions available for selected modules, see including module sources and including module binaries below. For other, more advanced module-handling options, read on!
Given the following project structure, and all appropriate module references in the parent POM:
+ parent (groupId: org.test, artifactId: parent) | + child1 (groupId: org.test, artifactId: child1) | + child2 (groupId: org.test, artifactId: child2)
We can select just the child1 module using the following moduleSet:
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
[...]
<moduleSet>
<includes>
<include>org.test:child1</include>
</includes>
</moduleSet>
</moduleSets>
[...]
</assembly>NOTE: It's important to remember that, if the child1 project itself had children, those children would not be included just because the child1 project was included. Each module is matched separately.
When used from within a moduleSet, all outputFileNameMapping configurations with expressions like ${artifactId} extract information from the artifact in question.
Given a module with the following:
Group Id: org.test Artifact Id: project Version: 1.0.1 Type: jar
The following outputFileNameMapping:
${module.groupId}-${module.artifactId}-${module.version}.${module.extension}Will result in a file called org.test-project-1.0.jar being created within the assembly.
NOTE: The expression <<<${module.extension}>> is mapped to the file extension supplied by the ArtifactHandler for the type jar. It's important to remember that the file extension need not be .jar.>
Once you've selected certain modules to be included in the assembly, you have to determine what you want included from each module. This usually depends on the purpose of the assembly. For instance, if you're building a binary assembly, for use in a runtime context, you probably want to include module binaries only (see the Including_Module_Binaries section below). However, if your assembly is meant to include project sources, either as a reference or to allow users to build your project (or for some other reason altogether), then you're probably interested in the sources section of the moduleSet.
Processing module sources is a fileSet-based activity. That is, sources are included or excluded based on file-matching patterns, or explicit fileSet subsections. For backward compatibility only, the <sources/> section itself supports includes and excludes that can help determine which files from a module's directory should be processed. Starting in version 2.2 of the assembly plugin, the <sources/> section supports a <fileSets/> subsection, which is the preferred way of selecting module-source files for processing.
In this example, we'll explore how to include the src directory only for each module selected by the moduleSet. This is useful to provide a source reference for your project to users.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
[...]
<moduleSet>
[...]
<sources>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<directory>src</directory>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</sources>
</moduleSet>
</moduleSets>
</assembly>In this example, we'll explore how to include an entire buildable project directory, for each selected module, within your assembly. This is useful to give your users the chance to tinker with your project, then build it on their own.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
[...]
<moduleSet>
[...]
<sources>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<excludes>
<exclude>target/**</exclude>
</excludes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</sources>
</moduleSet>
</moduleSets>
</assembly>NOTE: We exclude the target directory, since this is assumed to be temporary storage for files produced during the course of a Maven build. Permanent project files are not meant to reside here...
Normally, each module processed by the assembly plugin is placed within its own directory structure inside the assembly root directory. For module sources, the default name of this module-specific directory is the module's artifactId.
However, in some cases you may want to consolidate module sources into the same directory structure, based in the assembly root directory. To do this, simply set the includeModuleDirectory flag to false.
When providing a source reference to users, you may want to produce a single, consolidated source directory containing all of the source files from your multimodule hierarchy.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
[...]
<moduleSet>
[...]
<sources>
<includeModuleDirectory>false</includeModuleDirectory>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<outputDirectory>src</outputDirectory>
<includes>
<include>src/**</include>
</includes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</sources>
</moduleSet>
</moduleSets>
</assembly>When dealing with project sources in a complex multimodule build consisting of several layers of module groupings, it's sometimes desirable to process only the top layer of modules, and provide fileSet specifications to handle sub-modules. This can make it much easier to preserve the project-directory structure, since it doesn't force all modules - regardless of their location within the project hierarchy - through a flat module-processing mechanism. Processing only the first level of modules is the default configuration for the sources section of a moduleSet.
To explicitly process modules of modules - sub-modules, that is - simply use the excludeSubModuleDirectories flag, set to false.
Consider the case where you want to preserve the context of all source files within your project hierarchy, according to the project in which they belong. At the same time, you want to avoid confusing users with a complex nesting of projects within projects, and present a simple list of projects to browse.
If your project hierarchy looks like this:
+ application
|
+ src
|
+ project1
| |
| + src
| |
| + project1-child1
| | |
| | + src
| |
| + project1-child2
| | |
| | + src
|
+ project2
|
+ src
|
+ project2-child1
|
+ srcYou may want it to look like this in the resulting assembly:
+ application | | | + src | + project1 | | | + src | + project1-child1 | | | + src | + project1-child2 | | | + src | + project2 | | | + src | + project2-child1 | + src
To accomplish this restructuring, simply use the excludeSubModuleDirectories flag, as follows:
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
[...]
<moduleSet>
[...]
<sources>
<excludeSubModuleDirectories>false</excludeSubModuleDirectories>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<includes>
<include>src/**</include>
</includes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</sources>
</moduleSet>
</moduleSets>
</assembly>In cases where your assembly artifact is meant to be used in a runtime context, you'll most likely want to include the binaries from any modules processed by the assembly plugin. This can be as simple as adding the module's jar artifact to your assembly archive; or, it can involve selectively including the dependencies of that module in addition to the module's own jar.
At any rate, processing module binaries is an artifact-based activity. Accordingly, selection of the appropriate artifacts for a given module follows the artifact inclusion rules explained in the Advanced Assembly-Descriptor Topics document.
Once you've selected which artifacts should be processed for a particular module, you have several options for how to process them. In its simplest form, the binaries section of a moduleSet has many of the same characteristics as a dependencySet. That is, you have the option to specify an outputDirectory, and you can choose whether to unpack the artifact(s) - the default action will unpack them.
Sometimes it's important to have the option to add artifacts from a module that are not the main project artifact. Such artifacts might include javadocs, project sources, or even other assembly artifacts.
Suppose we have the following project structure:
+ application | + app-db | + app-web | + app-site
Further, suppose that the assembly plugin is currently executing at the application level, but that another assembly archive has been created previously for the app-site project. This other assembly archive is a zip file containing the project website. We want to include a copy of this website in the application distribution assembly, which we are creating now.
Finally, suppose that the website-attachment has a classifier of site taken from the assemblyId.
Since the zipfile containing the website produced by app-site is an attached artifact in that module, we'll need to extract that artifact instead of the main project artifact.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
<moduleSet>
<includes>
<include>*:app-site</include>
</includes>
<binaries>
<attachmentClassifier>site</attachmentClassifier>
<outputDirectory>doc</outputDirectory>
<outputFileNameMapping>website.${module.extension}</outputFileNameMapping>
</binaries>
</moduleSet>
[...]
</moduleSets>
</assembly>Just like any binary, modules usually have runtime dependencies, without which they will simply fail to execute. By default, module dependencies are included when the module itself is included. However, as we saw in the above example, there are times when this may not be appropriate.
In the above example, the module binary included was an assembly artifact that contained the website for the application. Other assemblies might embody a completely self-contained version of the module's binaries, with all dependency classes unpacked and inlined within the archive.
In short, sometimes we want to turn off automatic dependency inclusion. We can achieve this by setting the includeDependencies flag to false.
Suppose we have the following project structure:
+ application | + app-db | + app-web
Further, suppose that the assembly plugin is currently executing at the app-web level, but that another assembly archive has been created previously for the app-db project using the built-in jar-with-dependencies assembly descriptor. This assembly archive contains all of the module dependencies, so it's not necessary to include this module's dependencies in the current assembly.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
[...]
<moduleSets>
<moduleSet>
<includes>
<include>*:app-db</include>
</includes>
<binaries>
<attachmentClassifier>jar-with-dependencies</attachmentClassifier>
<outputDirectory>lib</outputDirectory>
<outputFileNameMapping>${module.artifactId}-${module.version}-${module.classifier}.${module.extension}</outputFileNameMapping>
</binaries>
</moduleSet>
[...]
</moduleSets>
</assembly>NOTE: The <<<binaries>> section still accommodates direct <includes/> and <excludes/> subsections, for specifying which module-dependencies to include in the assembly. However, these are deprecated, and only provided for backward compatibility.>