Maven Shade Plugin

Sample Project

Let's discuss a sample project where we will learn how to build a jar file using the shade plugin. 

⭐ Step 1: Install Eclipse IDE from the official website.

⭐ Step 2: Create a new maven project and select the simple project.

⭐ Step 3: Specify the Group ID and Artifact ID as shown in the image below.

⭐ Step 4: Click on 'finish' to create the project. You will see the project structure similar to the image below. It will have J2SE 1.5 in the JRE System Libraries.

⭐ Step 5: Open the pom.xml file. It should look something like this.

⭐ Step 6: Insert the plugin tag and maven compiler plugin as shown in the image. Update the project by pressing Alt+F5 to see the changes.

⭐ Step 7: Add a new class file in the src/main/java/com/ninja directory. Name the class as ‘MainDemo.java’. This file will contain the main method.

⭐ Step 8: Our dependency directory is empty. Let's add a few dependencies in the pom.xml file. To add the dependency, search it in the central maven repository after searching for the dependency. We will use guava and JUnit in our sample project.

⭐ Step 9: Add some content in the main method to verify our dependency. We are using the isNullOrEmpty method from the guava dependency to check this fact. Run the project to see the output in the console.

⭐ Step 10: Our application is now ready. It's stored in the target directory. See the image below for more clarification.

⭐ Step 11: It's time to add the maven shade plugin. You can search for it from the central maven repository. Add all the content in the pom.xml file. Make sure to edit the package name according to your package.

⭐ Step 12: Right-click on the project, run it as maven build, and set the goals to build the jar files using the shade plugin.

⭐ Step 13: After clicking on the run button, the build process will show the logs in the console.

⭐ Step 14: Now, the build process is done. From the target directory, open a terminal and run the following command to execute the main file.

java -jar ninja-shade-plugin-demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Final pom.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.ninja</groupId>
    <artifactId>ninja-shade-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <properties>
        <java.version>1.9</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.13</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
            <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
            <version>29.0-jre</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven.compiler.plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.8.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <target>${java.version}</target>
                    <source>${java.version}</source>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <version>3.2.3</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>shade</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <configuration>
                            <transformers>
                                <transformer />
                                <transformer implementation=" org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                                    <mainClass>com.ninja.MainDemo</mainClass>
                                </transformer>
                            </transformers>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Final MainDemo.java file:

//demo java file
package com.ninja;


import com.google.common.base.Strings;


public class MainDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String Name = "Manish";
        if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(Name)) {
            System.out.println("The string is correct:" + Name);
        }
    }
}

Must Read Apache Server

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Maven?

Maven is a build automation tool created by Apache Software Foundation. It can handle C#, Scala, Ruby etc. languages.

What is an uber jar file?

It is one level up from a simple jar file. It contains all of our packages and dependencies in a single jar file. It is independent and can be executed without any other needs.

What is a package?

A package is a complete set of files needed in a project. It contains all the dependencies and source code and can be shipped as the final product.

Conclusion

This blog has shed light on Maven Shade Plugin. It is a handy automation tool that is very needed for web and java developers. We also went through a sample project explaining how to build a jar file using the shade plugin.

More blogs on Maven:

• Maven Configuration Properties
• Maven Interview Questions
• Ant vs Maven
• How to install Maven on Windows
• Introduction to Maven Command

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