Maven - determine order of different plugin goals in the same phase

Question

The following snippet is an excerpt of the configuration of the maven-cargo plugin, but the question is independent from that specific plugin.

            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>start</id>
                    <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>deploy</goal>
                        <goal>start</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>

This configuration (lets simply call it plugin A) will wait till pre-integration-test phase, then fire its goals deploy and start (in that order).

Say I have another plugin B which is relevant in the same phase. What are my options to

1. execute plugin B's goals before (after) A? (someStuff - > deploy -> start)
2. execute plugin B's goals in-between plugin A's goals (deploy -> someStuff -> start)

I figure that the answer to (1) is here, linking the order of the goals to the order of the plugin definition in the POM. But I have no idea about (2).

Answer 1

You are right about (1). If two plugins are to be executed on the same phase, then they will be executed in the order they are declared in pom.xml.

I'm not 100% sure about the (2), but I think it's impossible without some hacks, like using exec-maven-plugin, for example:

<!-- deploy -->
<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
  <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>deploy</id>
      <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>deploy</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>
<!-- do something -->
<plugin>
  <groupId>some_other_plugin</groupId>
  <artifactId>some_other_plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>someStuff</id>
      <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>some_goal</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>
<!-- start -->
<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>start</id>
      <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>exec</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <executable>mvn</executable>
        <commandlineArgs>org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-maven2-plugin:start -Dparam=value</commandlineArgs>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>