How to force Maven to target Java 1.7 with a javax.persistence dependency?

Question

I am setting this in the pom.xml file:

<properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>


<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.6.1</version>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

When I open the .jar file and check the .class file with javap -v, it outputs "major version: 52" which corresponds to 1.8, so I see it did not respect my configuration.

I have a dependency on javax.persistence:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.persistence</groupId>
        <artifactId>persistence-api</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

If I remove this dependency, the javap -v outputs "major version: 51" which is the target I want.

But I need the dependency.

Is it possible to target 1.7 with the javax.persistence dependency? How?

I was expecting compilation errors if it could not target Java 1.7 as I configured.

I am using IntelliJ IDEA.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Did you try this?

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.7</source>
                <target>1.7</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>