Maven best way of linking custom external JAR to my project

Question

It s my first couple of days learning Maven and I m still struggling with the basics  I have an external  jar file  not available in the public repos  that I need to reference in my project and I m trying to figure out what my best option is    It s a small scale project without a central repository for libraries  so it has to be either a local repository  somehow added to source control  don t know if it s supposed to work that way   or the  jar needs to be stored on disk outside of any formal repository   1  What s my best option for adding the  jar file to my project s references with maven given that I want both the project and the library to be in source control   2  I still can t seem to have Eclipse see the dependency  I manually added it to the  section of the pom  and it shows up fine in the Dependencies list in m2eclipse  mvn compile and mvn package both succeed  but running the program results in   Exception in thread  main  java lang Error  Unresolved compilation problems          LibraryStuff cannot be resolved to a type   This is after editing the POM as    lt dependency gt     lt groupId gt stuff lt  groupId gt     lt artifactId gt library lt  artifactId gt     lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt     lt systemPath gt   lib location  MyLibrary jar lt  systemPath gt     lt scope gt system lt  scope gt   lt  dependency gt    Should I be executing mvn install install-file even thought I already have the pom xml edited as above   Thanks

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update We have since just installed our own Nexus server  much easier and cleaner   At our company we had some jars that we some jars that were common but were not hosted in any maven repositories  nor did we want to have them in local storage   We created a very simple mvn  public  repo on Github  but you can host it on any server or locally   note that this is only ideal for managing a few rarely chaning jar files   Create repo on GitHub  https   github com  lt user name gt  mvn-repo  Add Repository in pom xml   Make note that the full path raw file will be a bit different than the repo name    lt repository gt       lt id gt project-common lt  id gt       lt name gt Project Common lt  name gt       lt url gt https   github com  lt user name gt  mvn-repo raw master  lt  url gt   lt  repository gt   Add dependency to host  Github or private server  a  All you need to know is that files are stored in the pattern mentioned by  glitch   groupId artifactId version artifactId-version jar b  On your host create the folders to match this pattern    i e if you have a jar file named service-sdk-0 0 1 jar  create the folder service-sdk service-sdk 0 0 1  and place the jar file service-sdk-0 0 1 jar into it   c  Test it by trying to download the jar from a browser  in our case  https   github com  lt user name gt  mvn-repo raw master service-sdk service-sdk 0 0 1 service-sdk-0 0 1 jar Add dependency to your pom xml file    lt dependency gt       lt groupId gt service-sdk lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt service-sdk lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 0 0 1 lt  version gt   lt  dependency gt   Enjoy

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The best solution here is to install a repository  Nexus or Artifactory  If gives you a place to put things like this  and further it speeds things up by caching your stuff from the outside   If the thing you are dealing with is open source  you might also consider putting in into central   See the guide

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You can create an In Project Repository  so you don t have to run  mvn install install-file every time you work on a new computer   lt repository gt       lt id gt in-project lt  id gt       lt name gt In Project Repo lt  name gt       lt url gt file     project basedir  libs lt  url gt   lt  repository gt    lt dependency gt       lt groupId gt dropbox lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt dropbox-sdk lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 3 1 lt  version gt   lt  dependency gt     groupId artifactId version artifactId-verion jar  detail read this blog post  https   web archive org web 20121026021311 charlie cu cc 2012 06 how-add-external-libraries-maven

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This can be easily achieved by using the  lt scope gt  element nested inside  lt dependency gt  element   For example     lt dependencies gt      lt dependency gt        lt groupId gt ldapjdk lt  groupId gt        lt artifactId gt ldapjdk lt  artifactId gt        lt scope gt system lt  scope gt        lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt        lt systemPath gt   basedir  src lib ldapjdk jar lt  systemPath gt      lt  dependency gt    lt  dependencies gt    Reference  http   www tutorialspoint com maven maven external dependencies htm

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The most efficient and cleanest way I have found to deal with this problem is by using Github Packages   Create a simple empty public private repository on GitHub as per your requirement whether you want your external jar to be publicly hosted or not  Run below maven command to deploy you external jar in above created github repository  mvn deploy deploy-file    -DgroupId  your-group-id    -DartifactId  your-artifact-id    -Dversion  1 0 0 -Dpackaging  jar -Dfile  path-to-file    -DrepositoryId  id-to-map-on-server-section-of-settings xml    -Durl https   maven pkg github com github-username github-reponame-created-in-above-step  Above command will deploy you external jar in GitHub repository mentioned in -Durl   You can refer this link on How to deploy dependencies as GitHub Packages GitHub  Package Deployment Tutorial After that you can add the dependency using groupId artifactId and version mentioned in above step in maven pom xml and run mvn install Maven will fetch the dependency of external jar from GitHub Packages registry and provide in your maven project   For this to work you will also need to configure you maven s settings xml to fetch from GitHub Package registry

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If you meet the same problem and you are using spring-boot v1 4   you can do it in this way   There is an includeSystemScope that you can use to add system-scope dependencies to the jar   e g   I m using oracle driver into my project    lt dependency gt           lt groupId gt com oracle lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt ojdbc14 lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt 10 2 0 3 0 lt  version gt           lt scope gt system lt  scope gt           lt systemPath gt   project basedir  src main resources extra-jars ojdbc14-10 2 0 3 0 jar lt  systemPath gt       lt  dependency gt    then make includeSystemScope true to include the jar into path  BOOT-INF lib      lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt org springframework boot lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt spring-boot-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt configuration gt           lt includeSystemScope gt true lt  includeSystemScope gt       lt  configuration gt   lt  plugin gt    and exclude from resource to avoid duplicated include  the jar is fat enought    lt build gt       lt testSourceDirectory gt src test java lt  testSourceDirectory gt       lt resources gt           lt resource gt               lt directory gt src main resources lt  directory gt               lt excludes gt                   lt exclude gt      jar lt  exclude gt               lt  excludes gt           lt  resource gt       lt  resources gt   lt  build gt    Good luck

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Don t use systemPath  Contrary to what people have said here  you can put an external jar in a folder under your checked-out project directory and haven Maven find it like other dependencies  Here are two crucial steps    Use  mvn install install-file  with -DlocalRepositoryPath  Configure a repository to point to that path in your POM    It is fairly straightforward and you can find a step-by-step example here  http   randomizedsort blogspot com 2011 10 configuring-maven-to-use-local-library html

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If the external jar is created by a Maven project only then you can copy the entire project on your system and run a   mvn install   in the project directory  This will add the jar into  m2 directory which is local maven repository    Now you can add the    lt dependency gt        lt groupId gt copy-from-the maven-pom-of-existing-project lt  groupId gt        lt artifactId gt copy-from-the maven-pom-of-existing-project lt  artifactId gt        lt version gt copy-from-the maven-pom-of-existing-project lt  version gt   lt  dependency gt    This will ensure that you   mvn exec java    works  If you use suggested here    lt scope gt system lt  scope gt    Then you will have to add classes individually while using executing through command line   You can add the external jars by the following command described here  mvn install install-file -Dfile  lt path-to-file gt  -DgroupId  lt group-id gt    -DartifactId  lt artifact-id gt  -Dversion  lt version gt  -Dpackaging  lt packaging gt

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The Maven manual says to do this   mvn install install-file -Dfile non-maven-proj jar -DgroupId some group -DartifactId non-maven-proj -Dversion 1 -Dpackaging jar

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Maven way to add non maven jars to maven project  Maven Project and non maven jars  Add the maven install plugins in your build section   lt plugin gt           lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt maven-install-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt   version maven-install-plugin  lt  version gt           lt executions gt                lt execution gt                   lt id gt install-external-non-maven1-jar lt  id gt                   lt phase gt clean lt  phase gt                   lt configuration gt                       lt repositoryLayout gt default lt  repositoryLayout gt                       lt groupId gt jar1 group lt  groupId gt                       lt artifactId gt non-maven1 lt  artifactId gt                       lt version gt   version non-maven1  lt  version gt                       lt file gt   project basedir  libs non-maven1 jar lt  file gt                       lt packaging gt jar lt  packaging gt                       lt generatePom gt true lt  generatePom gt                   lt  configuration gt                   lt goals gt                       lt goal gt install-file lt  goal gt                   lt  goals gt               lt  execution gt               lt execution gt                   lt id gt install-external-non-maven2-jar lt  id gt                   lt phase gt clean lt  phase gt                   lt configuration gt                       lt repositoryLayout gt default lt  repositoryLayout gt                       lt groupId gt jar2 group lt  groupId gt                       lt artifactId gt non-maven2 lt  artifactId gt                       lt version gt   version non-maven2  lt  version gt                       lt file gt   project basedir  libs non-maven2 jar lt  file gt                       lt packaging gt jar lt  packaging gt                       lt generatePom gt true lt  generatePom gt                   lt  configuration gt                   lt goals gt                       lt goal gt install-file lt  goal gt                   lt  goals gt               lt  execution gt               lt execution gt                   lt id gt install-external-non-maven3-jar lt  id gt                   lt phase gt clean lt  phase gt                   lt configuration gt                       lt repositoryLayout gt default lt  repositoryLayout gt                       lt groupId gt jar3 group lt  groupId gt                       lt artifactId gt non-maven3 lt  artifactId gt                       lt version gt   version non-maven3  lt  version gt                       lt file gt   project basedir  libs non-maven3 jar lt  file gt                       lt packaging gt jar lt  packaging gt                       lt generatePom gt true lt  generatePom gt                   lt  configuration gt                   lt goals gt                       lt goal gt install-file lt  goal gt                   lt  goals gt               lt  execution gt           lt  executions gt       lt  plugin gt    Add the dependency   lt dependencies gt       lt dependency gt           lt groupId gt jar1 group lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt non-maven1 lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt   version non-maven1  lt  version gt       lt  dependency gt       lt dependency gt           lt groupId gt jar2 group lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt non-maven2 lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt   version non-maven2  lt  version gt       lt  dependency gt       lt dependency gt           lt groupId gt jar3 group lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt non-maven3 lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt   version non-maven3  lt  version gt       lt  dependency gt   lt  dependencies gt    References Note I am the owner of the blog

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The pom xml is going to look at your local repository to try and find the dependency that matches your artifact   Also you shouldn t really be using the system scope or systemPath attributes  these are normally reserved for things that are in the JDK and not the JRE  See this question for how to install maven artifacts

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I think you should use mvn install install-file to populate your local repository with the library jars then you should change the scope from system to compile   If you are starting with maven I suggest to use maven directly not IDE plugins as it adds an extra layer of complexity   As for the error  do you put the required jars on your classpath  If you are using types from the library  you need to have access to it in the runtime as well  This has nothing to do with maven itself   I don t understand why you want to put the library to source control - it is for sources code not binary jars

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Note that all of the example that use    lt repository gt     lt  respository gt     require outer    lt repositories gt     lt  repositories gt     enclosing tags   It s not clear from some of the examples

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Change your systemPath    lt dependency gt     lt groupId gt stuff lt  groupId gt     lt artifactId gt library lt  artifactId gt     lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt     lt systemPath gt   project basedir  MyLibrary jar lt  systemPath gt     lt scope gt system lt  scope gt   lt  dependency gt

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With Eclipse Oxygen you can do the below things    Place your libraries in WEB-INF lib Project -  Configure Build Path -  Add Library -  Web App Library   Maven will take them when installing the project

[java] Maven: best way of linking custom external JAR to my project?

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