Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.
If you think that Maven could help your project, you can find out more information about in the "About Maven" section of the navigation. This includes an in-depth description of what Maven is, a list of some of its main features, and a set of frequently asked questions about what Maven is.
Maven was originally started as an attempt to simplify the build processes in the Jakarta Turbine project. There were several projects each with their own Ant build files that were all slightly different and JARs were checked into CVS. We wanted a standard way to build the projects, a clear definition of what the project consisted of, an easy way to publish project information and a way to share JARs across several projects.
The result is a tool that can now be used for building and managing any Java-based project. We hope that we have created something that will make the day-to-day work of Java developers easier and generally help with the comprehension of any Java-based project.
Maven's Objectives
Maven's primary goal is to allow a developer to comprehend the complete state of a development effort in the shortest period of time. In order to attain this goal there are several areas of concern that Maven attempts to deal with:
* Making the build process easy
* Providing a uniform build system
* Providing quality project information
* Providing guidelines for best practices development
* Allowing transparent migration to new features
Learning about Maven
This site is separated into the following sections, depending on how you'd like to use Maven:
* Run Maven Information for those needing to build a project that uses Maven
* Use Maven Information for those wanting to use Maven to build their project, including a "10 minute test" that gives a practical overview of Maven's main features in just 10 minutes
* Write Maven Plugins Information for those who may or may not be using Maven, but want to provide a plugin for shared functionality or to accompany their own product or toolset
* Improve the Maven Repository Information for those who may or may not use, but are interested in getting project metadata into the repository
* Develop Maven Information for those who are currently developers, or interested in becoming developers of the Maven project itself
Each guide is divided into a number of trails to get you started on a particular topic, and includes a reference area and a "cookbook" of common examples.
You can access the guides at any time from the left navigation.
Documentation:
http://maven.apache.org/guides/index.html
Downloads
http://maven.apache.org/download.html