How do you create a standalone application with dependencies intact using Maven?

Question

I have a desktop Java application built using Maven 2 (but I could upgrade to Maven 3 if that helps) with a number of open source dependencies. I'm now trying to package it up as a standalone to make it available to end users without them needing to install maven or anything else.

I've successfully used maven-assembly-plugin to build a single jar containing all dependencies but this is not really what I want because when using LGPL libraries you are meant to redistribute the libraries you are using as separate jars.

I want Maven to build a zip containing a jar with my code and a MANIFEST.MF that refers to the other jars I need together with the other jars. This seems like standard practice but I cannot see how to do it.

Here's an extract from my pom

     <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                    <compilerVersion>1.6</compilerVersion>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8</argLine>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.4</version>
                <configuration>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <mainClass>com.company.widget.Main</mainClass>
                            <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <descriptorRefs>
                        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                    </descriptorRefs>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <mainClass>com.company.widget.Main</mainClass>
                            <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>make-assembly</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build> 

EDIT:Taken on Kals idea

created a file called descriptor.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<assembly
    xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
    <id>distribution</id>
    <formats>
        <format>zip</format>
    </formats>
    <dependencySets>
        <dependencySet>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
            <outputDirectory>lib</outputDirectory>
            <unpack>false</unpack>
        </dependencySet>
    </dependencySets>
</assembly>

and pom contains:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3</version>
    <configuration>
        <descriptors>
            <descriptor>assembly.xml</descriptor>
        </descriptors>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <mainClass>com.company.widget.cmdline.Main</mainClass>
                <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName>
                <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>make-assembly</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>single</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Now maintains the jar and puts them all in the lib folder, including my own code

Answer 1

You should check out the Maven Appassembler plugin. You can get a lot more robust package using it than rolling your own assembly.

It generates helpful startup scripts for Unix and Windows that allow you to set predefined JAVA VM options, commandline parameters and classpath.

It also has a concept of configuration directory where you can copy default configurations that user can later change. You can also set the configuration directory to be available on the classpath.

Dependencies can be saved in a Maven style "repo" or you can use a flat style "lib" directory.

You still need the assembly plugin for creating a zip or tar archive.

Here's an example appassembler configuration:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
    <artifactId>appassembler-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <programs>
            <program>
                <mainClass>com.mytools.ReportTool</mainClass>
                <name>ReportTool</name>
            </program>
        </programs>
        <assembleDirectory>${project.build.directory}/ReportTool</assembleDirectory>
        <repositoryName>lib</repositoryName>
        <repositoryLayout>flat</repositoryLayout>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>assembly</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>assemble</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

To get a zip archive I use the this assembly:

<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
    <id>bin</id>
    <formats>
        <format>zip</format>
    </formats>
    <fileSets>
        <fileSet>
            <directory>${project.build.directory}/ReportTool</directory>
            <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
            <includes>
                <include>/**</include>
            </includes>
        </fileSet>
    </fileSets>
</assembly>