Maven Javadoc Plugin

Javadoc Plugin in Maven

Before moving forward and discussing Javadoc Plugin in Maven, let’s discuss one more concept that will help you understand Maven and Plugins more clearly. 

Build Lifecycle of Maven

Let’s discuss what the build lifecycle of Maven is. 

▶️ There are three build processes - default, clean and site. 

▶️ For each build process, we have Phases. A Phase is responsible for performing a task. It is made up of a sequence of goals. 

▶️ A Goal is a much finer task that should be executed. 

▶️ A group of goals, either they belong to the same phase or they belong to different phases is called a Plugin. 

A Plugin is a reusable piece of code that can be used to execute the same build logic without writing it again and again. 

Javadoc Plugin

The Javadoc Plugin uses the Javadoc tool to generate documentation for specified files.  

Configure the pom.xml file as given below - 

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.ninja</groupId>
<artifactId>ninja</artifactId>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<version>1.0</version>
<name>ninja project</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<build>
   <plugins>
      <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
         <executions>
            <execution>
               <id>attach-javadocs</id>
               <goals>
                  <goal>jar</goal>
               </goals>
            </execution>
         </executions>
      </plugin>
   </plugins>
</build>
</project>

Run the following command

mvn install

Output

Two .jar file will be created containing the documentation. 

Must Read Apache Server

Frequently Asked Questions

How can we fix require upper bound dependencies error in Maven? 

Update the version in the pom. xml to the newest version listed in the output from maven-enforcer-plugin, in case that artifact is already declared in the pom.xml. You can apply the requireUpperBoundDeps to ensure that the dependencies are in a correct inheritance. 

What is the difference between phase and goal in Maven?

A Phase is a collection of goals that perform a task. When we run a phase, several different goals that are included in the phase run in a pre-defined sequence. A Goal is a specific task that needs to be performed, it is a much finer task than a Phase. For example, in compiler: compile - compile is the Goal for the compiler phase of the compiler plugin. 

What is a Plugin in Maven? 

A Plugin is the heart of Maven. It is a reusable piece of code that can be used to reuse the common build logic across different platforms. A Plugin is a group of different goals. These goals might or might not be related to each other. 

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed what a Javadoc tool is and how it is used by Maven as a Javadoc Plugin. We discussed how to configure this Javadoc plugin in the pom.xml file and use it. 

Do not stop learning! We recommend you read these articles- 

🔥 Maven Eclipse Plugin

🔥 Maven Plugins

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