Maven – Parent and Child POM Example

Maven parent POM (or super POM) is used to structure the project to avoid redundancies or duplicate configurations using inheritance between pom files. It helps in easy maintenance in long term.

Table of Contents

Parent POM Contents
Parent POM and Child POM
Parent POM Relative Path
Demo

Parent POM Contents

A parent POM can be declared with packaging pom. It is not meant to be distributed because it is only referenced from other projects.

Maven parent pom can contain almost everything and those can be inherited into child pom files e.g

• Common data – Developers’ names, SCM address, distribution management etc.
• Constants – Such as version numbers
• Common dependencies – Common to all child. It has same effect as writing them several times in individual pom files.
• Properties – For example plugins, declarations, executions and IDs.
• Configurations
• Resources

Parent POM and Child POM Example

To match a parent POM, Maven uses two rules:

1. There is a pom file in project’s root directory or in given relative path.
2. Reference from child POM file contains the same coordinates as stated in the parent POM file.

Parent POM

Here parent POM has configured basic project information and two dependencies for JUnit and spring framework.

<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.howtodoinjava.demo</groupId>
	<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<packaging>pom</packaging>

	<name>MavenExamples Parent</name>
	<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
		<junit.version>3.8.1</junit.version>
		<spring.version>4.3.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
	
		<dependency>
			<groupId>junit</groupId>
			<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
			<version>${junit.version}</version>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		
	</dependencies>
</project>

Child POM

Now child POM need to refer the parent POM using parent tag and specifying groupId/artifactId/version attributes. This pom file will inherit all properties and dependencies from parent POM and additionally can include extra sub-project specific dependencies as well.

<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">

	<!--The identifier of the parent POM-->
	<parent>
		<groupId>com.howtodoinjava.demo</groupId>
		<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
		<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	</parent>

	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
	<name>MavenExamples Child POM</name>
	<packaging>jar</packaging>

	<dependencies>		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-security</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

</project>

Parent POM Relative Path

By default, Maven looks for the parent POM first at project’s root, then the local repository, and lastly in the remote repository. If parent POM file is not located in any other place, then you can use code tag. This relative path shall be relative to project root.

<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">

	<!--The identifier of the parent POM-->
	<parent>
		<groupId>com.howtodoinjava.demo</groupId>
		<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
		<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
		<relativePath>../baseapp/pom.xml</relativePath>
	</parent>

	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
	<name>MavenExamples Child POM</name>
	<packaging>jar</packaging>

</project>

Demo

Let’s learn to create maven projects with parent child relationship.

1) Create Maven Parent Project

Project creation wizard.

Select Project Archtype.

Fill details and create project.

Now change packaging from jar to pom in pom.xml.

<packaging>jar</packaging> //previous

<packaging>pom</packaging> //New

Additionally, add project properties and dependencies.

<properties>
	<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
	<junit.version>3.8.1</junit.version>
	<spring.version>4.2.3.RELEASE</spring.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>junit</groupId>
		<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
		<version>${junit.version}</version>
		<scope>test</scope>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
		<version>${spring.version}</version>
	</dependency>
</dependencies>

2) Create Maven Child Project

Create a new maven project just like you did for parent project. Change project specific details like it’s name etc.

Now update child project’s pom.xml file with parent reference.

<!--The identifier of the parent POM -->
<parent>
	<groupId>com.howtodoinjava.demo</groupId>
	<artifactId>MavenExamples</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
</parent>

Now you are free to use parent pom’s elements such as properties. You child project has inherited the parent project. To test this, just remove all dependencies from child project’s pom.xml.

Now check it’s libraries in Java Build Path. You will see all parent’s dependencies there.

Drop me your questions in comment section.

Happy Learning !!

Ref: Maven Inheritance

Further Reading:

Spring-boot-starter-parent Example Maven – Spring Boot Fat/Uber Jar Spring Boot Multi-Module Maven Project