Maven command line interface

Question

Is there any option/plugin for maven command line interface that allow us to create a new project ? I mean for something user friendly like npm is.

Something like typing on a console $ xptocli init ?

Answer 1

I actually got so frustrated with the very long maven command that you have to write that I wrote a bash script for this exact purpose. I call it mvnproj and saved it in usr/local/bin. Here is the code

if [ $# -eq 4 ]; then
  cd $1
  mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=$4.$3.$2 -DartifactId=$2 -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false;
elif [ $# -eq 3 ]; then
  mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=$3.$2.$1 -DartifactId=$1 -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false;
elif [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
  mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=$2.$1 -DartifactId=$1 -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false;
else
  mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=$1 -DartifactId=$1 -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false;
fi

You can call it in 4 different ways

1. mvnproj dir projname groupname tld
2. mvnproj projname groupname tld
3. mvnproj projname groupname
4. mvnproj projname

For 1. dir is the directory where you want it placed, in 2-4, it will be placed in the directory you are currently in. projname is the name of your project, groupname is your company's name, and tld is the top level domain of your company. Example calls

1. mvnproj /tmp example stackoverflow com
2. mvnproj example stackoverflow com
3. mvnproj example stackoverflow
4. mvnproj example

Answer 2

You can use Maven's Archetype Plugin to create a new project:

$ mvn archetype:generate -B \
  -DgroupId=org.mygroup \
  -DartifactId=myartifact \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart

Answer 3

From the official maven documentation

In order to create the simplest of Maven projects, execute the following from the command line:

Note: The Archetype Plugin (mvn archetype:generate) allows the user to create a Maven project, this plugin is included with maven by default.

mvn -B archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes -DgroupId=com.mycompany.app -DartifactId=my-app

Once you have executed this command, you will notice that a directory named my-app has been created under C:\Users\yourname\my-app (in windows 7) and this directory contains a file named pom.xml that should look like this:

<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>com.mycompany.app</groupId>
  <artifactId>my-app</artifactId>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>Maven Quick Start Archetype</name>
  <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.11</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>