Customize maven build

Question

Is that possible to customize a maven build lifecycle without writing a plugin? I want to customize my project to package it without running tests, then run the tests. The background is that the tests are running on HTTPUnit and it needs a fully constructed web application directory structure.

Answer 1

As suggested by khmarbaise you can use maven-failsafe-plugin which is an extension of maven-surefire-plugin.

Maven lifecycle has four phases perfect for your intent:

1. pre-integration-test for setting up the integration test environment.
2. integration-test for running the integration tests.
3. post-integration-test for tearing down the integration test environment.
4. verify for checking the results of the integration tests.

generally speaking during the pre-integration-test we start the server

eg:

   <executions>
      [...]
      <execution>
        <id>start-jetty</id>
        <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>run-exploded</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
          <scanIntervalSeconds>0</scanIntervalSeconds>
          <daemon>true</daemon>
        </configuration>
      </execution>
      <execution>
        <id>stop-jetty</id>
        <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>stop</goal>
        </goals>
      </execution>

I use this plugin with Hudson; in Maven Build Customization - Chapter 5 you can find further details.

Answer 2

It seems that you are writing integration tests.

You could use maven-failsafe-plugin. This plugin is executed by default at the integration-test phase of the maven build lifecycle (which is after the packaging phase)...

Answer 3

For those purposes you need the integration-test phase which exactly is intended for such things. It's after the packaging phase but before install/deploy phase. This can be achieved by using the maven-failsafe-plugin. You can find a full example here.