How do I compile and execute a JDK preview features with Maven?

To compile and execute a JDK preview features with Maven, you need to add in the following configurations in your pom.xml file:

  • Compiler Plugin: The configuration should specify the JDK version and enable the preview features. It should look similar to this:
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.8.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <release>21</release>
                <compilerArgs>--enable-preview</compilerArgs>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>
  • Surefire Plugin: If you’re using the Maven Surefire Plugin to run your tests, you should also enable the preview features there. The configuration may look similar to this:
<build>
    <plugins>
    ...
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.22.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <argLine>--enable-preview</argLine>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Before building your project, ensure that you have JDK 21-preview installed on your computer, and it’s properly set in JAVA_HOME environment variable or in the IDE settings.

Then use Maven to package or install your project:

mvn clean package
# or
mvn clean install

Please ensure that you have the correct version of maven-compiler-plugin and maven-surefire-plugin that support the JDK 21-preview features. For the project that uses Spring MVC, you should make sure all dependencies are compatible with JDK 21-preview as well.

How do I install third-party libraries in Maven repository?

Sometimes when the required libraries / dependencies is not available in the Maven Central Repository we need to manually install it to our local repository. This library must be placed in the correct directory in our local repository to enable Maven to find it. The default location is under the ${user.home}/.m2/repository.

To make this job easier Maven provides a maven-install-plugin that will help us to install the third-party library in the correct place. The following command shows how to do it.

The long command

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=<path-to-file> -DgroupId=<group-id> \
        -DartifactId=<artifact-id> -Dversion=<version> -Dpackaging=<packaging>

Where:

  • -Dfile = path to the third-party library file
  • -DgroupId = the groupId of the library
  • -DartifactId = the artifactId of the library
  • -Dversion = the version number of the library
  • -Dpackaging = the library packaging

An example to install an Oracle JDBC library to your local repository is:

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=ojdbc7.jar -DgroupId=com.oracle \
        -DartifactId=ojdbc7 -Dversion=12.1.0.2 -Dpackaging=jar

The simple command

If you have the pom.xml file, you can install it with the following command:

mvn install:install-file \
        -Dfile=<path-to-file> \
        -DpomFile=<path-to-pomfile>

Where:

  • -Dfile = path to the third-party library file
  • -DpomFile = the location to the library pom.xml file

Starting with the Maven version 2.5 you can use even a simpler command. When the library is build by Maven, a pom.xml file will be placed under the META-INF directory. This pom.xml file will be used by default when we install the library. To install a library all you need is the following command:

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=<path-to-file>

How to use Google Maven Central mirror?

The following configuration will use Google’s mirror of the Maven Central repository. Alter your ${M2_HOME}/conf/settings.xml or ${user.home}/.m2/settings.xml to add the mirror as seen in the following configuration file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings>
    .
    .
    <mirrors>
        <mirror>
            <id>google-maven-central</id>
            <name>Google Maven Central</name>
            <url>https://maven-central.storage.googleapis.com</url>
            <mirrorOf>central</mirrorOf>
        </mirror>
    </mirrors>
    .
    .
</settings>

How to configure a proxy in Maven settings?

When we work behind a proxy server, we need to configure Maven to be able to connect to the internet. To enable proxy we can configure Maven settings.xml file, either in ${M2_HOME}/conf/settings.xml or ${user.home}/.m2/settings.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings>
    .
    .
    <proxies>
        <proxy>
            <id>my-proxy</id>
            <active>true</active>
            <protocol>http</protocol>
            <host>proxy.example.org</host>
            <port>8080</port>
            <username>username</username>
            <password>password</password>
            <nonProxyHosts>*.example.org|*.example.com</nonProxyHosts>
        </proxy>
    </proxies>
    .
    .
</settings>

The <proxy> element in the configuration above contains the information about the proxy server. These include information about the host, port, username and password. Set these elements to match your proxy server configuration.

How do I specify the Java compiler version in a pom.xml file?

When you need to compile a project for a specific Java version you can configure maven compiler plugin to set the source and the target version. The following pom.xml file configuration show you how to do it.

<project>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>    

Invalid value for the source and the target version in our project will make our project compilation process failed. For example when we try to use the diamond operator (<>) which available in Java 7, while the maven compiler plugin is set to version 1.5, can produce compiler error like this:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (default-compile) on project servlet-example: Compilation failure
[ERROR] /Users/wsaryada/Studio/kodejava.org/webapp-example/servlet-example/src/main/java/org/kodejava/example/servlet/SessionCounter.java:[10,51] diamond operator is not supported in -source 1.5
[ERROR] (use -source 7 or higher to enable diamond operator)