Templating a Maven Archetype

Question

I am creating my own maven archetype, which is a common template for projects that i use.

In that template i have a number of \"exec-maven-plugin\" blocks, which actuall

Answer 1

It should be possible to do what you want. Maven uses Apache Velocity to process the archetype files when copying them to the new project. I have successfully done something similar by prompting the archetype user for the argument "useSomeFeature" and adding a plugin execution if the response begins with 'Y' or 'y', for example.

My use case added text based on a Boolean reply; your use case requires a for loop. It will look something like this. Note, this is untested code, I leave it to you to get the syntax exactly right, add any desired error handling, and make it work. :) You have the idea, anyway.

## archetype-resources/pom.xml
## assumes the template variable holding the main class list is mainClassAnswer
#set( $mainClasses = $mainClassAnswer.split(","))

.... basic POM elements here ....

<profiles>
#set ( $loopCount = 0 )
#foreach( $mainClass in $mainClasses )
  #set ( $trimmedMainClass = $mainClass.trim() )
  #set ( $loopCount = $loopCount + 1 )
  <profile>
      <id>Main${loopCount}</id>
      <build>
          <plugins>
              <plugin>
                  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                  <configuration>
                      <executable>java</executable>
                      <arguments>
                          <argument>${trimmedMainClass}</argument>
                      </arguments>
                  </configuration>
              </plugin>
          </plugins>
      </build>
  </profile>
#end
</profiles>
.... rest of POM here ....