Running Maven for war:exploded without war:war
Maven is a powerful tool used for project management and build automation in Java-based projects. It provides a structured way to manage project dependencies, compile source code, and package the application into a distributable format. One of the most common use cases for Maven is to create a web application in the form of a war (Web ARchive) file. However, in some cases, developers might want to run the application in an exploded format instead of a war file. In this article, we will explore how to run Maven for war:exploded without using the traditional war:war command.
First, let's understand the concept of exploded war. An exploded war is a directory structure that represents the contents of a war file. It contains all the necessary files and folders required to run the web application. This format is useful for debugging and testing purposes as developers can make changes to the files without having to rebuild the whole war file every time. To generate an exploded war, we need to specify the goal "war:exploded" in the Maven command.
Traditionally, to create a war file, developers use the command "mvn clean package war:war". This command executes the clean phase, which deletes the target directory, and then the package phase, which compiles the source code and creates the war file. However, if we want to generate an exploded war, we need to add the "war:exploded" goal at the end of the command, as follows: "mvn clean package war:exploded".
Now, the question arises, why do we need to add the "war:exploded" goal separately? The reason is that by default, the "package" goal of Maven binds the "war:war" goal to it. This means that whenever we execute the "package" goal, the "war:war" goal will also be executed. To avoid this, we need to override the default binding and specify the "war:exploded" goal explicitly.
Running Maven with the "war:exploded" goal will create an exploded war in the target directory. This directory will have the same name as the war file but without the ".war" extension. For example, if our war file is named "my-web-app.war", the exploded war directory will be "my-web-app". Inside this directory, we will find all the necessary files and folders, such as WEB-INF, META-INF, and the application's classes and resources.
But what if we need to deploy the exploded war to a server or container? In that case, we can use the "war:exploded" goal along with the "war:war" goal. This will generate both the exploded war and the traditional war file in the target directory. We can then deploy the exploded war to the server, while keeping the war file as a backup.
Another way to run Maven for war:exploded is by using the "tomcat7:run" goal. This goal starts an embedded Tomcat server and deploys the exploded war to it. This is useful for local development and testing, as we can make changes to the code and see the results without having to redeploy the application to a server.
In conclusion, Maven provides the flexibility to generate an exploded war without using the traditional "war:war" command. By explicitly specifying the "war:exploded" goal, we can
