[jbosstools-issues] [JBoss JIRA] (TOOLSDOC-643) Document Maven Tools functionality in User Guide

[Fred Bricon (JIRA)]

    [ https://issues.jboss.org/browse/TOOLSDOC-643?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13067736#comment-13067736 ] 

Fred Bricon commented on TOOLSDOC-643:
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Yes Maven is already pre-installed (embedded) in m2e. You technically can add an external Maven runtime though, in Preferences > Maven > Installations. However, these external runtimes are *only* usable when performing Run As > Maven Build .... They're never _ever_ used during regular workspace builds, contrary to what many crap-you-can-find-online say.

Creating a module means creating a project as part of a multi-module project. When creating a module, you need to specify a Parent GAV. By default creating a module after selecting a pom project will nest the module folder under the parent directory. See https://books.sonatype.com/m2eclipse-book/reference/creating.html#creating-sect-creating-module. In the Project Explorer view of Eclipse Mars/JBDS 9, you can display projects in a hierarchical view. See https://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/news/4.5/M5/#nested-projects

Automatic download of sources and javadoc can be enabled in Preferences > Maven. In theory we could even get JBDS set these on by default, but that would certainly slow down project resolution.
The maven source lookup container complements what m2e provides OOTB, by providing automatic source download during _runtime_ execution. So for instance, whenever you open a reference from your classpath, m2e download mechanism will be used, but if you run a webapp, put a breakpoint a want to see the source of a class up in the stack trace, provided by your application server for instance (which is not in your project classpath), then the source lookup container will kick in.

Experimental Automatic Update project configuration is now available in Maven preferences :
!http://content.screencast.com/users/fbricon/folders/Jing/media/206a3738-bb17-43ad-ac73-cfc1c50e8695/00000073.png|width=650!  
See https://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/m2e-users/msg05038.html for the announcement. However it was disabled by default because we found that, under certain circumstances, it could cause endless build loops (https://bugs.eclipse.org/462898).

A summary of the pom properties controlled configuration can be found, among other informations, at http://tools.jboss.org/documentation/whatsnew/jbosstools/4.2.0.Final.html#maven 

Even though it's a bit outdated, https://books.sonatype.com/m2eclipse-book/reference/ stiull provides some good references about m2e. Its licensed was relaxed last year, uses EPL now, so in theory, we could update it : https://github.com/sonatype/m2eclipse-book. Misha, if you want to give it a try ;-)

> Document Maven Tools functionality in User Guide
> ------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: TOOLSDOC-643
>                 URL: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/TOOLSDOC-643
>             Project: Documentation for JBoss Tools and Developer Studio
>          Issue Type: Feature Request
>          Components: General documentation issues
>            Reporter: Michelle Murray
>            Assignee: Misha Ali
>              Labels: JBDS80_Approved_Scope
>             Fix For: 4.3.0.Final
>
>
> Add a chapter to the JBDS User Guide on Maven Tools.



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