Question

We have installation folder that we use with maven to pack a release up,

This Installation folder has some static files, and a pom.xml

The build goal is to copy the static files to the target installation folder and some zip
artifacts from the repository – expand them and put them in the target folder under /unzipped.

installation folder:

/installation_folder
pom.xml
    /some_files
             /file1
             /file2

Target folder should be like:

/target
    /installation_files
        /some_files
             /file1
             /file2
        /unzipped
             /prj1   - unzipped artifact prj1 from the repository
             /prj2   - unzipped artifact prj2 from the repository

On this “installation pom” – I have a reference to assembly xml; I am able to copy the static files – and get artifacs from the repository,

The question is – to copy the zip from repository and expand them in the target/unzipped folder

should I use Modules and moduleSet or dependency and dependencySets?

Should the pom.xml + assembly.xml look like:

project.group
installation_project
pom

<modules>
    <module>prj1</module>        
    <module>prj2</module>       
</modules>

…

and assembly.xml:

<moduleSets>
    <moduleSet>
        <includes>
            <include>*:*</include>
        </includes>
            <binaries>
            <unpack>true</unpack>
            </binaries>
        </binaries>
    </moduleSet> 

Or should it look like this:

<project>
<groupId>project.group</groupId>
<artifactId>installation_project</artifactId>
<packaging>pom</packaging>

    <dependencies>

        <dependency>
            <artifactId>prj1</artifactId>
            <groupId>gruop_id</groupId>
            <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
            <type>zip</type>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <artifactId>prj2</artifactId>
            <groupId>gruop_id</groupId>
            <version>2.0</version>
            <type>zip</type>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

…

and assembly.xml:

<dependencySets>
    <dependencySet>
        <outputDirectory>installation_files/unzipped/</outputDirectory>
        <outputFileNameMapping>${artifact.artifactId}</outputFileNameMapping>
        <includes>
            <include>*:*:zip</include>
        </includes>
        <unpack>true</unpack>
    </dependencySet>
</dependencySets>

Thank you!

Answer 1

Another way would be to just maven dependency plugin, with goal=unpack.

<plugin>
   <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
   <executions>
     <execution>
       <id>unpack</id>
       <phase>generate-resources</phase>
       <goals>
          <goal>unpack</goal>
       </goals>
       <configuration>
         <artifactItems>
           <artifactItem>
              <groupId></groupId>
              <artifactId></artifactId>
              <version></version>
              <type></type>
              <overWrite></overWrite>
              <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
           </artifactItem>
         </artifactItems>
       </configuration>
     </execution>
   </executions>
</plugin>

Another way is to use an assembly plugin but i find that quite cumbersome and is usually meant for more complex assembly creation than simple unzipping/zipping.