Editing Apache Maven (section)

=== Plug-ins ===
Most of Maven's functionality is in [[plug-in (computing)|plug-in]]s. A plugin provides a set of goals that can be executed using the command <code>mvn [plugin-name]:[goal-name]</code>. For example, a Java project can be compiled with the compiler-plugin's compile-goal<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-compiler-plugin/|title=Apache Maven Compiler Plugin – Introduction|first=Edwin|last=Punzalan}}</ref> by running <code>mvn compiler:compile</code>.

There are Maven plugins for building, testing, source control management, running a web server, generating [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]] project files, and much more.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maven.apache.org/plugins/index.html|title=Maven – Available Plugins|first=Brett Porter Jason van Zyl Dennis Lundberg Olivier Lamy Benson Margulies Karl-Heinz|last=Marbaise}}</ref> Plugins are introduced and configured in a <plugins>-section of a <code>pom.xml</code> file. Some basic plugins are included in every project by default, and they have sensible default settings.

However, it would be cumbersome if the archetypal build sequence of building, testing and packaging a software project required running each respective goal manually:

* <code>mvn compiler:compile</code>
* <code>mvn surefire:test</code>
* <code>mvn jar:jar</code>

Maven's lifecycle concept handles this issue.

Plugins are the primary way to extend Maven. Developing a Maven plugin can be done by extending the org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractMojo class. Example code and explanation for a Maven plugin to create a cloud-based virtual machine running an application server is given in the article ''Automate development and management of cloud virtual machines''.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Amies| first=Alex|author2=Zou P X |author3=Wang Yi S | title=Automate development and management of cloud virtual machines|journal=IBM DeveloperWorks|publisher=IBM|date=29 Oct 2011| url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-automatecloud/index.html}}</ref>