Minimum pom.xml file for new Maven / Spring MVC project

Question

I am completely new to Maven and Spring MVC. What I am looking to do is to set up a new Spring MVC project, using Maven (hopefully this sentence makes sense), and run my web app on Tomcat using Eclipse.

I am following the tutorial at this link and I have a problem with the pom.xml file:

• Getting Started with Maven and Spring

The tutorial asks to create the folder structure, and to create a pom.xml file. For starters they ask to put this line in pom.xml:

xml 4.0.0org.springsource.greenbeans.mavenexample11.0-SNAPSHOTOur Simple Project

But when I do that, my Eclipse throws an error:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[ERROR] The build could not read 1 project -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]   The project  (D:\projectName\pom.xml) has 1 error
[ERROR]     Non-parseable POM D:\projectName\pom.xml: only whitespace content allowed before start tag and not ` (position: START_DOCUMENT seen `... @1:1)  @ line 1, column 1 -> [Help 2]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/ProjectBuildingException
[ERROR] [Help 2] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/ModelParseException

Any idea on what the right minimum pom.xml could be? I tried many things but it didn't work for me...

Answer 1

You need not create folder structure yourself. Maven archtype 'maven-archetype-webapp' does it for you. Here is a good tutorial to guide you through for basic setting up a MVC project in eclipse (and the right approach):

• Create Spring MVC dynamic web project with Maven and make it support Eclipse IDE

   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>com.beingjavaguys.sample</groupId> <artifactId>SampleSpringMaven</artifactId> <packaging>war</packaging> <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version> <name>SampleSpringMaven Maven Webapp</name> <url>http://maven.apache.org</url> <properties> <spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version> <jdk.version>1.6</jdk.version> </properties> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>junit</groupId> <artifactId>junit</artifactId> <version>3.8.1</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> </dependencies> <build> <finalName>SampleSpringMaven</finalName> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId> <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.1</version> <configuration> <url>http://localhost:8080/manager/text</url> <server>my-tomcat</server> <path>/SampleSpringMaven</path> </configuration> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId> <version>3.0</version> <configuration> <source>${jdk.version}</source> <target>${jdk.version}</target> </configuration> </plugin> </plugins> </build> 

Answer 2

The minimal pom.xml file for Spring MVC with Tomcat could be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.spring.maven</groupId>
    <artifactId>minimal-spring</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.5.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <path>/</path>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

And then:

$ mvn -Dmaven.tomcat.port=8888 tomcat7:run

Answer 3

Here is the mininum pom.xml for a non spring boot application which will generate a Spring 5, Java 11 war file which you can deploy on tomcat. I'm using the spring bom here in dependency management which locks the version of the spring framework jars

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.yourco</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-mvc-demo</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>spring-security Maven Webapp</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework/spring-framework-bom -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-framework-bom</artifactId>
                <version>5.3.9</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>3.8.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>4.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <finalName>spring-mvc-demo</finalName>
        <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.8.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>${java-version}</source>
                    <target>${java-version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.3.2</version>
            </plugin>
    </build>
</project>