Question

I’m using Maven 3.0.3. If someone runs a Maven task that is inclusive of the “verify” phase, I want to ensure that a property, “tomcat.manager.url” is defined, and throw an error if it isn’t. However, if someone hasn’t run a command that includes verify (e.g. mvn test), I don’t want to throw any error.

How do I do this?

Thanks, – Dave

Answer 1

You could set the enforcer plugin (docs) to execute during the “verify” phase with a rule that requires that plugin to be set, the configuration would look something like this:

<build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.1</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>enforce-property</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>enforce</goal>
            </goals>
            <phase>verify</phase>
            <configuration>
              <rules>
                <requireProperty>
                  <property>tomcat.manager.url</property>
                  <message>You must set a tomcat manager url</message>
                </requireProperty>
              </rules>
              <fail>true</fail>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

Since the plugin will only execute during the verify phase, the check won’t happen unless you are running a build that reaches that phase.