How to generate a WAR with the source code in Maven?

Question

I want to distribute the war of my web application generated with Maven with the source code inside it. How to do that with Maven?

Answer 1

It is possible configure the maven-war-plugin to include the source directory as it was a web resource:

 <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <webResources>
            <resource>
              <directory>${build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
              <targetPath>sources</targetPath>
            </resource>
          </webResources>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

The java sources will be included in a sources directory in the war. Of course you should adapt the resource directory to your own maven layout.

Answer 2

If you want the source files in the same directory as the class files you would use:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <webResources>
                    <resource>
                        <directory>${build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
                        <targetPath>WEB-INF/classes</targetPath>
                    </resource>
                </webResources>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>