How to configure Checkstyle in Eclipse for an maven project automatically

Question

I have a maven-multi project, when I create a new eclipse project from it (by M2E 1.0 "Checkout Maven Project from SCM) I want that the eclipse checkstyle plugin is configured for that project automatically.

So I added the maven-eclipse-plugin in parent pom's <pluginManagement> section and configured it to generate .checkstyle file as well as the additional project nature CheckstyleNature. In the modul poms I added the name of the maven-eclipse-plugin in the build section. But when I checkout the project nothing happend, the file is not generated and the nature is not added.

So I think I am doing something completely wrong, but how is it done correct?

---

Parent pom - plugin management section:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.8</version>
    <configuration>
        <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
        <downloadJavadocs>false</downloadJavadocs>
        <wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
        <additionalBuildcommands>
            <buildCommand>
                <name>org.eclipse.ajdt.core.ajbuilder</name>
                <arguments>
                    <aspectPath>org.springframework.aspects</aspectPath>
                </arguments>
            </buildCommand>
            <buildCommand>
                <name>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</name>
            </buildCommand>
        </additionalBuildcommands>
        <additionalProjectnatures>
            <projectnature>org.eclipse.ajdt.ui.ajnature</projectnature>
            <projectnature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</projectnature>
            <projectnature>com.atlassw.tools.eclipse.checkstyle.CheckstyleNature</projectnature>
        </additionalProjectnatures>
        <additionalConfig>
            <file>
                <name>.checkstyle</name>
                <content>
<![CDATA[
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<fileset-config file-format-version="1.2.0" simple-config="true" sync-formatter="false">
  <fileset name="all" enabled="true" check-config-name="My Checkstyle rules" local="false">
    <file-match-pattern match-pattern="." include-pattern="true"/>
  </fileset>
  <filter name="FilesFromPackage" enabled="true">
    <filter-data value="target" />
    <filter-data value="src/main/resources"/>
    <filter-data value="src/test/java"/>
    <filter-data value="src/test/resources"/>
    <filter-data value="src/main/webapp" />
  </filter>
</fileset-config>
]]>
                </content>
            </file>
        </additionalConfig>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Module pom - plugins section:

<plugin>
     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
     <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>

Answer 1

There are detailed answers to this topic in Can I Configure m2eclipse through pom.xml?:

Completely automatic configuration of the Eclipse Checkstyle Plugin can only be achieved with a ProjectConfigurator, e.g. m2e-code-quality or m2e-extensions.

For m2e as of version 1.0, you can install them via the m2e marketplace under Preferences->Maven->Discovery->"Open Catalog". For details see the bug tracking for integration of m2e-code-quality into the m2e marketplace.

There is a also solution based on AntRun and XMLTask even for FindBugs and Sonar. It needs manual triggering only once after checkout.

Answer 2

The maven eclipse plugin is not the same thing as the m2e plugin for eclipse, which I'm assuming you are trying to use. Basically you shouldn't use both at the same time.

You can use mvn eclipse:eclipse from the command line to generate project files and then you can import the projects into eclipse. M2e works very differently and instead uses the pom files when you import projects as maven plugins. Probably what you want is to configure the checkstyle plugin and hopefully eclipse would pick up the settings. Same for findbugs and other maven plugins.

However, I actually prefer using mvn eclipse:eclipse and haven't actually verified the above works as expected. M2e is just too much of a time waster for me and seems to go off and do the wrong things frequently. I particularly hate how it has a habit of basically rebuilding everything after command line interaction with maven. But lots of people seem to like m2e.