Plugins in Maven and POM.xml

Question

I just started using Maven and I read that plugins are additional components that can be used.
A typical structure of pom.xml file is

<project>   <groupId>org.koshik.javabrains</groupId>   <artifactId>JarName</artifactId> (A fldernamed JarName was created)    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>   <packaging>jar</packaging>    <name>JarName</name>   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>    <properties>     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>   </properties>    <dependencies>     <dependency>       <groupId>junit</groupId>       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>       <version>3.8.1</version>       <scope>test</scope>     </dependency>   </dependencies> </project> 

Question: Where should I insert a plugin tag? such as the following:

<plugin>   <groupId>org.jibx</groupId>   <artifactId>jibx-maven-plugin</artifactId>   <version>1.2.4</version>   <executions>     <execution>       <goals>         <goal>bind</goal>       </goals>     </execution>   </executions> </plugin> 

Before the dependency or after the dependency tag? Does it matter?

Answer 1

<project>     <groupId>org.koshik.javabrains</groupId>     <artifactId>JarName</artifactId> (A fldernamed JarName was created)      <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>     <packaging>jar</packaging>      <name>JarName</name>     <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>      <properties>         <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>     </properties>      <build>         <plugins>             <plugin>                 <groupId>org.jibx</groupId>                 <artifactId>jibx-maven-plugin</artifactId>                 <version>1.2.4</version>                 <executions>                     <execution>                         <goals>                             <goal>bind</goal>                         </goals>                     </execution>                 </executions>             </plugin>         </plugins>     </build>      <dependencies>         <dependency>             <groupId>junit</groupId>             <artifactId>junit</artifactId>             <version>3.8.1</version>             <scope>test</scope>         </dependency>     </dependencies> </project> 

You can also place plugins in the <build> section of <profile> if you use maven profiles. The order doesn't matter.