Eclipse Maven Integration Using m2eclipse

maven

Recently I authored a chapter in Maven: the Definitive Guide. The chapter I wrote is about Maven integration with Eclipse using m2eclipse, an Eclipse plugin for Maven. I really enjoyed writing this chapter because it allowed me to dig into m2e and understand more about what is really there today. In short, I was blown away!

m2e has come a long way since I last tried it out a couple years ago. Since that time, it has become so feature rich that there's little need for me to use Maven on the command line anymore. Being that I'm a command line freak because of the power and control it offers, I wasn't thrilled about staying in the IDE to build everything. But I commend Eugene and company on the features and polish in m2e today. In fact, I'm already finding it difficult to live without. If you haven't tried out m2eclipse, read through the article and try it out now. Believe me, you'll be very satisfied!

Additonally, we also just published an article based on the m2e chapter titled Introduction to m2eclipse. This chapter is focused on getting m2e installed and showcasing its major features and should help folks get started with it quickly. Unfortnately, in the time it took for the TheServerSide to publish the article, m2e has gotten more new features and the Maven book chapter has been updated significantly.

BTW, you can also buy a published copy of the Maven book from O'Reilly Media, though I'm not quite sure I'd recommend it for one reason. The updates to the book chapters are coming at such a rapid pace that a printed book will be out of date the day you buy it. Besides, I'm not a huge fan of paper books that simply grow out of date really fast. But if you like a printed book in hand, buy away ;-).