I have this simple question how to import whole project source into Ecplise so I can browse it easily? Specifically, I have downloaded Maven source code http://maven.apache.org/download.html and I just want to view it same as other projects in my Eclipse.
I've tried to import it with use of two possible options (as archive and as a project) without luck.
Thank you in advance!
Maven itself is a Mavenized multi-module project, Generally there are two ways to import a Mavenized project into a IDE like eclipse:
Pre-requirment:
- Suppose you have installed Maven 3 and setup environment variable
properly.
- if you use Eclipse, you also need add M2_REPO to you
Build Path -- Classpath Variable, check out here for how to
setup. this tells Eclipse where to find jar dependencies stored in
local maven repository.
Option 1 -- Import as Java Project:
Open a command prompt and go to the extracted source folder, run mvn eclipse:eclipse
and waiting for it finish, make sure it doesn't popup any message start with [ERROR], this
will download all required jar dependencies from internet to you
local maven repository and create .project and .classpath for Eclipse
to use when doing import.
In eclipse, go to File -- Import -- General -- Existing Project into
Workspace, select the extracted source folder as root directory. This
will import a group of projects into Eclipse as bunch of regular java
projects (i.e. project icon inside Package Explorer watermarked with a
capital J).
Option 2 -- Import as Maven Project:
- Alternatively, if yo got m2e plugin installed in Eclipse, you can
directly import the extracted project folder, go to File -- Import --
Maven -- Existing Maven Projects, select the extracted source folder
as Root Directory. This will import a group of projects into Eclipse
as bunch of Maven projects (project icon inside Package Explorer
watermarked with a Capital M).
Hope this helps.
The maven repository versions are not uploaded in the exact format they are on disc (from where the the mvn deploy goal is run. I can think of 3 options assuming I understand your question correctly:
- You can find the open source project if it exists and get all the
source and project from there.
- On an existing project, you go the dependencies, right click on one
and select browse source. Not the same as having the show project
here you can build and run however.
- You can download the sources from the maven repo and then
reconstruct the project. I'm not not sure how feasible this
actually is and I have never tried it. I would probably find other
ways before trying this.