Maven for Java

Features

Maven extension for VS Code. It provides a project explorer and shortcuts to execute Maven commands, improving user experience for Java developers who use Maven.

• Support to generate projects from Maven Archetype.
• Support to generate effective POM.
• Provide shortcuts to common goals, plugin goals and customized commands.
• Preserve command history to fast re-run.

Requirements

• Java
• Maven / Maven Wrapper

For troubleshooting, please refer to the page HERE.

Basic Usage

Maven Explorer

The extension scans pom.xml in your workspace, and displays all Maven projects and their modules in the sidebar.

Run Plugin Goals

The extension parse effective-pom of Maven projects, and displays all plugins and plugin goals hierarchically.

POM File Editing

The extension provides Maven specific completion suggestions when editing POM files, including snippets and artifact hints.

Re-Run Historical Commands

It preserves history of goals for each project, so you can fast re-run previous long commands, e.g. mvn <goals> -Dparam1=value1 -Dparam2=value2 -Dparam3=value3 ... There are 2 entries for it:

• Command Palette -> select Maven: History ... -> Select a project -> Select command from the history
• Right-click on a project -> Click History ... -> Select command from the history

Archetype Related

Generate from Maven Archetype

The extension loads archetypes listed in local/remote catalog. After selection, the extension sends mvn archetype:generate -D... to terminal. There are 2 entries for it:

• Command Palette -> select Maven: Generate from Maven Archetype
• Right-click on a folder -> Click Generate from Maven Archetype

Update Maven Archetype Catalog

With following steps, you can update the local cache of Maven remote catalog. It takes some time to download meta data from Maven central repository.

Command Palette -> select Maven: Update Maven Archetype Catalog.

Additional Configurations

JAVA_HOME and Other Environment Variables

This extension executes Maven by opening a terminal session and then calling Maven in that session. Maven requires the JAVA_HOME environment variable to be set. Maven will also look for other variables such as MAVEN_OPTS. If you prefer not to set those variables permanently you can configure them, or any other environment variable, in settings:

{
    "maven.terminal.customEnv": [
        {
            "environmentVariable": "MAVEN_OPTS",               // variable name
            "value": "-Xms1024m -Xmx4096m"                     // value
        },
        {
            "environmentVariable": "JAVA_HOME",                // variable name
            "value": "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk-9.0.4"      // value
        }
    ]
}

Special Handling for JAVA_HOME

If you have Red Hat's Java Language Support extension installed, then you can specify JAVA_HOME in settings for that extension:

{
    "java.home": "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk-9.0.4"      // Red Hat Java Language Support Setting
}

This extension (Maven for Java) can reuse that setting if you desire:

{
    "maven.terminal.useJavaHome": true      // Use the Red Hat Java Language Support Setting for JAVA_HOME
}

With this support, you can specify JAVA_HOME in one place and you do not need to use the maven.terminal.customEnv setting unless you have other environment variables to set.

If you have JAVA_HOME configured through the maven.terminal.customEnv setting, and also specify to reuse the Red Hat setting, then the value from maven.terminal.customEnv will take precedence.

Default Options for Maven Command

The usage of Maven executable is:

usage: mvn [options] [<goal(s)>] [<phase(s)>]

You can use maven.executable.options to specify default options for all your Maven commands executed in current project.

{
    "maven.executable.options": "-o -s ./settings.xml"      // work offline, and use an alternative settings file 
}

Folder Exclusion for Searching POM Files

To speed up the searching of Maven projects, you can exclude folders in settings:

{
    "maven.excludedFolders": [
        "**/.*",                // exclude hidden folders
        "**/node_modules",      // exclude node modules to speed up
        "**/target"             // exclude duplicated pom file in target folder
    ]
}

Customize Favorite Maven Commands

Specify a favorite command in settings:

{
    "maven.terminal.favorites": [
        {
            "alias": "full-build without tests",
            "command": "clean package -DskipTests"
        }
    ]
}

Now right-click on an project item, and then click Favorite .... The option full-build without tests should show up.

Settings

Name	Description	Default Value
maven.excludedFolders	Specifies file path pattern of folders to exclude while searching for Maven projects.	[ "**/.*", "**/node_modules", "**/target", "**/bin", "**/archetype-resources" ]
maven.executable.preferMavenWrapper	Specifies whether you prefer to use Maven wrapper. If true, it tries using 'mvnw' by walking up the parent folders. If false, or 'mvnw' is not found, it tries 'mvn' in PATH instead.	true
maven.executable.path	Specifies absolute path of your 'mvn' executable. When this value is empty, it tries using 'mvn' or 'mvnw' according to the value of 'maven.executable.preferMavenWrapper'. E.g. /usr/local/apache-maven-3.6.0/bin/mvn
maven.executable.options	Specifies default options for all mvn commands. E.g. -o -DskipTests
maven.pomfile.autoUpdateEffectivePOM	Specifies whether to update effective-pom automatically whenever changes detected.	false
maven.pomfile.globPattern	Specifies the glob pattern used to look for pom.xml files.	**/pom.xml
maven.terminal.useJavaHome	If this value is true, and if the setting java.home has a value, then the environment variable JAVA_HOME will be set to the value of java.home when a new terminal window is created.	false
maven.terminal.customEnv	Specifies an array of environment variable names and values. These environment variable values will be added before Maven is executed. environmentVariable: Name of the environment variable to set. value: Value of the environment variable to set.	[]
maven.terminal.favorites	Specify pre-defined favorite commands to execute. alias: A short name for the command. command: Content of the favorite command.	[]
maven.view	Specifies the way of viewing Maven projects. Possible values: flat, hierarchical.	flat
maven.settingsFile	Specifies the absolute path of Maven settings.xml file. If not specified, ~/.m2/settings.xml is used.	null

Data/Telemetry

VS Code collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more. If you don’t wish to send usage data to Microsoft, you can set the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting to false. Learn more in our FAQ.

Contributing

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

Release Notes

Refer to CHANGELOG