Using maven to connect to a local project

Question

I have two projects in eclipse:

1. framework: A general library used in several projects.
2. client: A project that uses framework.

client is quite large, possibly larger than framework at this point. I am using client as sort of a test fixture for framework. I want to make a few changes in framework and test them in client. Currently, I have to do a full build of framework, install it into a maven repo, and then rebuild client.

Is there a way to just have client point to framework directly on my local disk? Any other hints for developing in such a situation (ie is the a better way)?

Answer 1

You can specify dependencies from the local disk using <systemPath> like so:

<dependency>
    <groupId>example.logging</groupId>
     <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
     <version>1.0.0</version>
     <scope>system</scope>
     <systemPath>${project.basedir}/lib/commons-logging.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

I'm not sure if you can point to a directory that has a pom in it, but at least you don't have to deploy it into maven.

Answer 2

Running mvn install on Framework will build it and install it in your local Maven repository (that is, the Maven repository on your local disk). When you run your tests in Client, Maven will automatically use the version of Framework in your local repository.