Question

I’m using the Maven DBUnit plugin to load test data for unit tests. I’d also like to use it for loading a different set of data to a different db for demo purposes. The dbunit plugin only allows for a single execution. Should I just create a separate pom or is there some trick that I can do to make this happen. (I.e., I’d like to simply do something like mvn load-demo-data).

Answer 1

you can execute a plugin several times if you like it depends just on the configuration you give in the pom:

 <plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-whatever-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>execution1</id>
        <phase>test</phase>
        <configuration>
          ....
        </configuration>
        <goals>
          <goal>WhatEverGoalYouHave</goal>
        </goals>
        <phase>...</phase>
      </execution>
      <execution>
        <id>execution2</id>
        <configuration>
         ....
        </configuration>
        <goals>
          <goal>WhatEverGoalYouHave</goal>
        </goals>
        <phase>...</phase>
      </execution>
    </executions>
  </plugin>

You can also define a profile to control the execution which might the right choice for your demo data. The call you described mvn load-demo-data is not possible with maven, cause maven calls only a goal or lifecycle.