src/site/apt/guides/mini/guide-attached-tests.apt

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 Guide to using attached tests
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 Jason van Zyl
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 12 October 2005
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Guide to using attached tests

 Many times you may want to reuse the tests that you have created for a project in another. For example if you have
 written <<<foo-core>>> and it contains test code in the <<<$\{basedir\}/src/test/java>>> it would be useful to package
 up those compiled tests in a JAR and deploy them for general reuse. To do this you would configure the
 <<<maven-jar-plugin>>> as follows:

+----+

<project>
  <build>
    <plugins>
     <plugin>
       <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
       <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
       <version>2.2</version>
       <executions>
         <execution>
           <goals>
             <goal>test-jar</goal>
           </goals>
         </execution>
       </executions>
     </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

+----+

* Installing the attached test JAR

 In order to install the attached test JAR you simply use the standard <<<install>>> phase by executing
 the following command:

+----+

mvn install

+----+

* Deploying the attached test JAR

 In order to deploy the attached test JAR you simply use the standard <<<deploy>>> phase by executing
 the following command:

+----+

mvn deploy

+----+

* Using the attached test JAR

 In order to use the attached test JAR that was created above you simply specify a dependency on the main
 artifact with a specified type of <<<test-jar>>>:

+----+

<project>
  ...
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.myco.app</groupId>
      <artifactId>foo</artifactId>
      <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <type>test-jar</type>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
  ...
</project>

+----+

 Note that previous editions of this guide suggested to use <<<\<classifier\>tests\</classifier\>>>> instead of
 <<<\<type\>test-jar\</type\>>>>. While this currently works for some cases, it does not properly work during a
 reactor build of the test JAR module and any consumer if a lifecycle phase prior to <<<install>>> is invoked. In such
 a scenario, Maven will not resolve the test JAR from the output of the reactor build but from the local/remote
 repository. Apparently, the JAR from the repositories could be outdated or completely missing, causing a build
 failure (cf. {{{http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-2045}MNG-2045}}).