How can we add the local JAR files to the Maven Project in Java

Question

How can we add local JAR files to our Maven Project source?

Answer 1

You can add local dependencies directly into pom.xml file.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.sample</groupId>
    <artifactId>sample</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <scope>system</scope>
    <systemPath>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/yourJar.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

Hope it helps!

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Answer 2

Firstly I would like to give credit for this answer to anonymous stackoverflow user - I am pretty sure I've seen similar answer here before - but now I cannot find it.

The best option for having local jar files as a dependency is to create local maven repository. Such repo is nothing else than proper directory structure with pom files in it.

On my example: I have master project on ${master_project} location and subroject1 is on ${master_project}/${subproject1}

then I am creating mvn repository in: ${master_project}/local-maven-repo

In pom file in subproject1 located ${master_project}/${subproject1}/pom.xml repository needs to be specified which would take file path as an url parameter:

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>local-maven-repo</id>
        <url>file:///${project.parent.basedir}/local-maven-repo</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Dependency can be specified as for any other repository. This makes your pom repository independent. For instance once desired jar is available in maven central you just need to delete it from your local repo and it will be pulled from default repo.

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
        <artifactId>org.apache.felix.servicebinder</artifactId>
        <version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </dependency>

The last but not least thing to do is to add jar file to local repository using -DlocalRepositoryPath switch like here:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.5.2:install-file  \
    -Dfile=/some/path/on/my/local/filesystem/felix/servicebinder/target/org.apache.felix.servicebinder-0.9.0-SNAPSHOT.jar \
    -DgroupId=org.apache.felix -DartifactId=org.apache.felix.servicebinder \
    -Dversion=0.9.0-SNAPSHOT -Dpackaging=jar \
    -DlocalRepositoryPath=${master_project}/local-maven-repo

Onece jar file is installed such mvn repo can be committed to code repository and whole set up is system independent. (working example in github)

I agree that having JARs committed to source code repo is not a good practice but in real life quick and dirty solution sometimes is better than full blown nexus repo to host one jar that you cannot publish.