Code generation in Maven

Question

I want to autogenerate some java classes from interfaces. My first thought was to write a code generator, and integrate it as a maven plugin.

I was thinking of creating

Answer 1

Maybe have a look at the XDoclet Maven plugin- XDoclet is often used for generating sources from doclet-style markup in classes (e.g. autogenerating MBean interfaces from implementations) and that sounds similar to what you're doing.

Answer 2

Sources should go in {project.build.directory}/generated-sources/[plugin-id]/

Most plugins take configuration passed through the plugin configuration section in the pom. You can use default values as well, or an annotation and classpath scanning.

A plugin like the maven-jspc-plugin generates code, which you could take a look at. The "Better Builds With Maven" e-book also contains a reasonably comprehensive chapter on writing plugins.

Answer 3

I have used APT-Jelly to successfully generate java source code from annotated java. You may want to check it out.