New-added Maven plugin becomes red in IntelliJ

Question

I'm following this guideline for a Maven plugin, after which I've added the following:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.5.3</version>
</plugin>

maven-release-plugin & 2.5.3 are both red. I'm using a local Maven repository. How can I update it? Do I need to install anything so that IntelliJ can find it? I'm new to Maven and would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Answer 1

You have to add the following in Maven pom.xml.

<build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.5.3</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

Once added , wait for 2 mins in Intellij Idea based upon the network speed. Still does not work, click on the right side of Intellij Idea having a tab "Maven" and click refresh button. See the picture below.

Answer 2

Double-check your IntelliJ maven configuration at File->Settings->Build, Execution, Deployment->Build Tools->Maven

1. Work Offline is not checked
2. Your local repository is correct

Double-check your local repository folder usually at %HOMEPATH%\.m2\repository\ and go through the subfolders org\apache\maven\plugins\maven-release-plugin if you do not find a jar file the dependency was not downloaded.

You can try to force maven to download the missing dependencies. Navigate to your project pom.xml file and run the following command:

mvn -U -X dependency:copy-dependencies

The -U force the update and -X produce a debug log with more information about what is going wrong.

If you have a file %HOMEPATH%\.m2\setting.xml check the content and see if there is any proxy information. You can try to rename this file and force the update again.

You can also install dependency manually Download the jar and try the command:

    mvn install:install-file -Dfile=<path-to-file -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.plugins -DartifactId=maven-release-plugin -Dversion=2.5.3