In multimodule maven project, how to execute proper goal for each module?

Question

I have three maven projects in my prototype:

bookman (main project)
 |-- bookman-back-lend (module, simple service app)
 \-- bookman-front-web (module, simple web app)

This is very simple example book lending app (for library or something) to learn various technologies and all of that.

Problem is that I can't make parent pom to execute goals in module poms.

Calling mvn clean package wildfly:deploy in any module individually works without problem. It compiles, deploys, war is replaced, Wildfly 8 does its thing, etc. But if I call parent POM with mvn clean package (I'm not even sure what to call...), it doesn't do much - certainly it does not deploy to wildfly any of modules. Wildfly does not budge. In parent POM, calling mvn clean package wildfly:deploy does not work, of course.

Here is parent pom.xml:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>org.mader.bookman</groupId>
  <artifactId>bookman</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>pom</packaging>

  <name>Main BookMan superproject.</name>
  <description>Main BookMan superproject.</description>

  <modules>
    <module>bookman-front-web</module>
    <module>bookman-back-lend</module>
  </modules>
</project>

And module POMs, with some stuff cut out for brevity (I assume they aren't related to my problem).

bookman-front-web/pom.xml:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <artifactId>bookman-front-web</artifactId>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <name>Frontend project - webpage.</name>
  <description>Web page to handle lending books.</description>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.mader.bookman</groupId>
    <artifactId>bookman</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  </parent>

  <properties>
  ...
  </properties>

  <repositories>
  ...
  </repositories>

  <dependencyManagement>
  ...
  </dependencyManagement>

  <dependencies>
  ...
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
    <defaultGoal>clean package wildfly:deploy</defaultGoal>

    <plugins>
      <plugin> <!-- To use, run: mvn clean package wildfly:deploy -->
        <groupId>org.wildfly.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>wildfly-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${version.wildfly.maven.plugin}</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

And bookman-back-lend/pom.xml:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <artifactId>bookman-back-lend</artifactId>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <name>Backend project - lending.</name>
  <description>Business logic to handle books, users and act of lending.</description>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.mader.bookman</groupId>
    <artifactId>bookman</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  </parent>

  <properties>
  ...
  </properties>

  <repositories>
  ...
  </repositories>

  <dependencyManagement>
  ...
  </dependencyManagement>

  <dependencies>
  ...
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
    <defaultGoal>clean package wildfly:deploy</defaultGoal>

    <plugins>
      <plugin> <!-- To use, run: mvn clean package wildfly:deploy -->
        <groupId>org.wildfly.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>wildfly-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${version.wildfly.maven.plugin}</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

It should be possible to have customized goals to execute for each module individually, right? Right? Otherwise those aggregate POMs are rather useless.

Unfortunately, questions like this suggest that maven goal executed on parent POM is exactly same goal to execute on child POMs. Who thinks up something like that? What if I need completely different goals in each child module?

All answers I found are few years old, maybe... just maybe... sanity prevailed and maven now allows something like that? After all, all information neccessary to do this should be accessible, like defaultGoal tag.

score -2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '14 at 15:07

Problem was solved in radical way. Maven is dead, long live Gradle.

I was tinkering with it last few days and I already moved prototype to point where it actually works. While there is still tons of work left, I already know I will not be looking back.

So, yeah... if you have requirements that cannot be done easily or at all with Maven for various reasons, then consider Gradle. In fact, consider Gradle anyway.

In multimodule maven project, how to execute proper goal for each module?

1 Answers1