将maven工件用于非maven项目

Question

I have never worked with Maven and I just came across it while trying to use an external API for my Non-Maven project. The documentation for the External API says:

The JAR is not currently available on any central Maven repositories, but you can easily 
clone this repository and install it to your local Maven just by typing:
mvn compile install

Since my project is not a Maven project, OI am wondering how can I still use this external API which does not have a JAR file that I could otherwise import into my project?

I know that I can convert my project into a Maven project, but is that the only/best option? Thanks!

Answer 1

1. Checkout the code.
2. Run mvn package
3. Find the JAR in the target/ directory of the project and use it in your non maven project.

Answer 2

Converting to Maven (or Gradle) if you're not using any build-management system is almost certainly the preferable option; learning Maven will take a little while, but it prevents a multitude of headaches with dependency and classpath management, predictable build integration, and so on.

That said, there's nothing magic about jars that have been built with Maven; it's simply a tool that automates calling all of the tools you'd use anyway like the compiler and JUnit. It produces a regular jar that you use just like you'd use any other jar by adding it to your classpath.