Introduction

Q for Eclipse can help you develop traditional java applications, as well as web applications using WTP, by handling the resolution of dependencies for your project, no matter if they are local or remote.

This page explains how to achieve the same result when using or developing maven plug-ins.

The short answer

It just works, you don't need to do a thing.

Starting with q4e 0.7.0, if a maven execution includes a mojo present on the workspace, it will be used during the build.

Details

You'll need at least two projects: one for the mojo and another for testing.

The mojo project

For this example, just create a new maven project mojodev using the maven-archetype-mojo archetype. Keep the default values for everything.

This archetype creates a touch goal which creates a file on the target folder named touch.txt and with the same string as the contents.

We won't modify it now.

The test project

Now create a new maven project mojotest. For simplicity, use the maven-archetype-quickstart archetype.

Once the mojotest project has been created, we'll bind the touch goal on mojodev to the process-resources phase using this snippet:

	<build>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>mojodev</groupId>
				<artifactId>mojodev</artifactId>
				<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
				<executions>
					<execution>
						<goals>
							<goal>touch</goal>
						</goals>
						<phase>process-resources</phase>
					</execution>
				</executions>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>

Save the pom.

Testing it

Any maven goal involving the process-resources phase you should run now (for example, the package goal on the context menu) would also invoke this new plug-in. But also any goal used by Q for Eclipse! Lets try that.

Go to the Project menu and Clean... the mojotest project.

There are two things you should notice in the Package Explorer after cleaning.

1. The mojo project has been packaged for you
2. A new file touch.txt exists on mojotest/target

Making changes

Just for having fun, lets change the contents of the generated touch.xml file. Open it and keep an eye on it.

Open also MyMojo.java in project mojodev and change line 61. For example, add the current date to the message.

To give it a twist, now right click on mojotest and choose Maven 2 > Package Artifact.

And voilà!... the contents of touch.txt have changed to include the date.

Closing remarks

In case you are wondering... the same would have happened if you've chosen to clean the project. But it would have been boring!

Another remark worth making is that the packaging only performed when needed (this is also true for plain old workspace dependencies). If the packaged artifact/mojo is up-to-date or is not needed for the current maven run, no time will be lost packaging it.

Enjoy!