configure Maven Shade minimizeJar to include class files

Question

I am trying to minimize the UberJar\'s size by using Maven Shade Plugin\'s minimizeJar. It looks like minimizeJar only includes class

Answer 1

This functionality has been added to version 1.6 of the maven-shade-plugin (just released). minimizeJar will now not remove classes that have been specifically included with filters. Note that including some of an artifact's classes in a filter will exclude non-specified classes for that artifact, so be sure to include all the classes that you need.

Here's an example plugin config:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.6</version>    
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>shade</goal>
            </goals>                        
            <configuration>
                <minimizeJar>true</minimizeJar>    
                <filters> 
                    <filter>
                       <artifact>log4j:log4j</artifact>
                       <includes>
                           <include>**</include>
                       </includes>
                    </filter> 
                    <filter>
                       <artifact>commons-logging:commons-logging</artifact>
                       <includes>
                           <include>**</include>
                       </includes>
                    </filter>                      
                </filters>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Answer 2

I am using the 2.0 version of the Maven Shade Plugin and still I am not able to include classes after "minimizing" the JAR.

As a workaround the only thing that comes to my mind is to create references to the needed classes to avoid the minimization code to get rid of them. ie:

/*
 * This block prevents the Maven Shade plugin to remove the specified classes
 */
static {
    @SuppressWarnings ("unused") Class<?>[] classes = new Class<?>[] {
        JButton.class,
        JMenu.class,
        JMenuBar.class,
        JMenuItem.class
    };
}

I hope Maven developers implement a way to handle this situation (which I guess is very common).