In Maven2, what's the simplest way to build a WAR and the EAR to contain that WAR in a single POM?

Question

Situation is pretty straightforward. I have a Java webapp that I\'m converting to be built with Maven. At present, the app is built with Ant into a single WAR file, which is the

Answer 1

I know this is 5 years old now, but it was still the first answer that came up when I searched. Also, whilst "that's not the maven way" is a perfectly reasonable answer for some people, others may still prefer to use a single pom as the OP asked, and it is really not that complicated.

First, create a standard war pom.xml to generate the war file you want to include in the ear. Leave the packaging as war.

Then write your own application.xml (in src/main/application or wherever) using a placeholder for the war file name:

  
    
      ${project.build.finalName}.war
      myapp
    
  

And include any other server-specific xml files (weblogic-application.xml etc.) in the same location.

Next, add a resources section to replace the placeholder with the war file name:

  
    src/main/application
    true
    
      META-INF/*.xml
    
  

Finally, add an ant ear task to built the ear:

  maven-antrun-plugin
  
    
      package
      
        run
      
      
        
          
            
            
          
        
      
    
  

And that's it.