How to define a default mojo for a maven plugin

Question

I\'ve written a plugin that generate one file in target/generated-sources/. This plugin only has one mojo. This mojo is declared with the following :

/**
 *          


        

Answer 1

Having your Maven plugin automatically run its default goal when its default phase executes is not possible. This is confusing because there are a lot of standard plugin ‘bindings’ for specific packagings. Those are defined in Maven core: https://maven.apache.org/ref/3.6.1/maven-core/default-bindings.html

For example, for WAR packaging it is:

  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:2.6:testResources
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:testCompile
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4:test
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin:2.2:war
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.4:install
  
  
    org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-deploy-plugin:2.7:deploy
  

By defining a default phase in your plugin you won’t have to specify that, just the goal. In your case:

    
        convert
        
        
            convertsql
        
    

Also see https://maven.apache.org/developers/mojo-api-specification.html (look for @phase). The relevant quote (my emphasis):

Defines a default phase to bind a mojo execution to if the user does not explicitly set a phase in the POM. Note: This annotation will not automagically make a mojo run when the plugin declaration is added to the POM. It merely enables the user to omit the element from the surrounding element.