CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javamavendeploymentjar
user2148736
user2148736

Reputation: 1323

How is in the real world deployed Maven application?

I have a Java console application, till now it was developed in Netbeans IDE. When Netbeans builds application, it creates dist directory and builds an app into this directory as a jar archive and into dist/lib copies all dependencies. This this directory could be copied into final destination and run.

Now I'm trying to transfer this project into Maven. Everything goes ok, I can compile and package my app and a jar is created into target directory. I use maven-jar-plugin to set main class in manifest and maven-shade-plugin to package all sources into one jar file.

I would like to ask you how is such Maven project deployed in the real world? Should I use all target directory, copy it ad the final destination and run as I have been used to do with Netbeans? What are consequences when I don't use maven-shade-plugin - where are all libraries defined as dependencies located? I am asking, because in my testing project these libraries don't exist in target directory.

My question - I have a Java console application "A" packaged via Maven (without maven-shade-plugin) and Linux server "S" where this application should run. Can I copy all target directory manually to server "S" or is there some better / more automatic way how is this solved in the real world?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2932

Answers (2)

Kalpak Gadre
Kalpak Gadre

Reputation: 6475

Simply copying over the target directory will not solve your problem. I have packaged many standalone applications using Maven and I have used Maven Assembly Plugin for it. You can create a distribution archive (zip, tar.gz) using the assembly plugin which your customer can unzip and start running.

It depends on you, how you want your target application directory structure (release). I usually end up with something like

bin/
conf/
lib/
log/

The bin directory contains a shell / batch script to run your program by calling your main class, setting appropriate classpath, providing relevant memory settings etc. I prefer using classworlds (which is used by Maven) to bootstrap my application and simplify writing of start scripts.

conf directory contains configuration files for your application as well as logging configuration files like log4j etc. This directory I add on classpath to make it easier to access configuration resources at runtime.

lib directory contains all the dependency jars a well as jar file for your code.

log is where your logging configuration will point to output log files.

Note that this structure is good for standalone server like applications. Also having a bin directory and run scripts allows you to add this directory to PATH on Windows / Linux to ensure you can run the application from anywhere.

If you are packaging a command line utility, simple shaded jar may work for you. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of java -jar application.jar

Upvotes: 6

kostja
kostja

Reputation: 61568

The question is too broad to be answered comprehensively, but I would like to provide an example of real-world maven deployment.

There are maven plugins for all major application servers. They have defined targets for local and remote deployment. One such plugin is the jboss-as-maven plugin. You can define the deployment properties (IP, port etc.) in your .pom or directly from command line, e.g.

mvn jboss-as:deploy -Dpassword=mypassword

There is also the cargo plugin that specializes in application deployment.

Upvotes: 2

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