Maven Multi Module Project Structuring Issues

Question

Well here is an interesting experience i had since last couple of weeks structuring my maven multi module project.

When i decided to use maven for my build life cycle ma

Answer 1

This is a good question. There are many aspects that must be considered for a useful project layout. I'd like to try to answer one which you didn't mention. Is your app extensible by users? If it is, then consider creating a separate module for your public API layer (service interfaces, DTOs used by those services, and Exceptions thrown by the services).

In our app, we have several maven modules per functional area. The idea is that a group worked on a feature within just one functional area and this isolation kept them messing with sources being modified by another group. Each functional area is broken down further in maven sub-modules we call "api", "domain", and "service" - we don't lump services/controllers, domain, and exceptions into a single module. The api module contains those classes we want to expose to customers for their customizations. Our service layer is the implementation of those interfaces. Further, we do not allow one module's service to call another module's service as this would bypass our service orchestration layer where customer can attach extensions to our services. Using separate maven modules per functional area helps enforce this.

We have other modules (internal-api, web, adapter) but they don't really add to this topic.