Maven custom directory structure - no sources to compile despite specifying sourceDirectory

Question

I am using a custom directory structure and have specified the directory in sourcedirectory tag. But still I get the message No sources to compile. Although the build is successful.

My directory structure:

So instead of src/main/java, I am using java. (And I have a reason to do that, so right now it's not possible to switch to src/main/java)

Here's my pom.xml:

<artifactId>application</artifactId>  
  <name>application</name>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>

   <properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    <maven.test.skip>true</maven.test.skip>
  </properties>
    <build>
        <sourceDirectory>java</sourceDirectory>    
        <plugins>
          <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.7.0</version>
            <configuration>
              <source>1.8</source>
              <target>1.8</target>
              <excludes>
                    <exclude>**/old/**/*.java</exclude>
              </excludes>
              <includes>
                <include>java/com/**/*.java</include>            
              </includes>
            </configuration>
          </plugin>
          <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>**/old/**/*.java</exclude>                 
                    </excludes>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
                        <mainClass>com.start.Start</mainClass>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
           </plugin>
        </plugins>
      </build>

When I run command mvn clean package, I get following output:

The source is not compiled and resultant jar is empty. All the sources I have referred for using custom directory structure with maven say that using sourceDirectory should solve the problem. But in my case it doesn't solve

EDIT

I am using custom directory structure as using standar directory structure did not work for me. Hers' my question related to that: Getting error in linking a source folder in eclipse maven

EDIT2:

I am linking source in java directory. That is, on the file system, application->java does not exist, but in eclipse through link source option, I have added the Java source folder from a different directory. Therefore it appears in eclipse. Also I have run maven commands with mvn command line as well as through eclipse.

Answer 1

If I understand your issue correctly, You have an application folder and the actual source (java) folder is from somewhere else in the file system. And you linked the external folder as java source through eclipse for compilation.

By linking in Eclipse, maven will not automatically know where the source files are. Maven follows standard directory structure for looking up java and test files. You can use this Build Helper plugin to customize the way maven looks up sources.

An example talked here