The StringTemplate Plugin uses the StringTemplate template engine to generate files during your build.
The configuration looks like the following:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.webguys</groupId>
<artifactId>string-template-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
<configuration>
<templates>
<template>
<directory>path-to-template-directory</directory>
<name>template-name</name>
<target>path-to-output-filename</target>
<controller>
<className>fully-qualified-class-name</className>
<method>method-to-invoke</method>
<properties>
<key>value</key>
</properties>
</controller>
<properties>
<name1>value1</name1>
<name2>value2</name2>
</properties>
</template>
</templates>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>generate-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>render</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
The execution of the plugin can be under any phase, but it is recommended to use the generate-sources phase.
The configuration consists of a set of <template> elements that must contain:
The <template> element also may contain:
Generally, at least one of <controller> or <properties> will be needed for each template definition.
The <controller> element can have an optional <properties> child element to pass properties from the POM file to the controller. The format of this section is the same as any other <properties> section: element names are keys and the text children of them are values. In order to support this, the controller must have a (class or instance) method with the following signature:
public void setProperties(java.util.Map)
If properties are configured in the POM and this method exists (either as a class or instance method), it will be invoked before the method specified in the <method> element. The keys and the values of the Map parameter will both be strings.
If the output of a template is a Java file (ends with '.java') and it is written to a subdirectory of target/generated-sources, then that subdirectory will be automatically added to the Maven project's compile source path for that lifecycle execution. This behavior is applied for all templates, so multiple directories could be added to the compile source path.
If the class file for the controller is not available when the plugin is run, the plugin will attempt to be compile it. It is assumed that the source for the specified controller is in the current project. If the class is not available on the classpath, and either the source file cannot be found or cannot be compiled the build will fail.
You can set the source and target Java versions that are used to automatically compile the controller class. You can also set the version of the Maven compiler plugin that will be used. Custom values for these parameters must be valid for their context: the source and target version must be valid for the Java compiler and the plugin version must be a valid Maven compiler plugin version.
The default values are:
The following is an example of using custom settings for these parameters:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.webguys</groupId>
<artifactId>string-template-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
<configuration>
<templates>
<template>
<directory>path-to-template-directory</directory>
<name>template-name</name>
<target>path-to-output-filename</target>
<controller>
<className>fully-qualified-class-name</className>
<method>method-to-invoke</method>
<sourceVersion>1.5</sourceVersion>
<targetVersion>1.5</targetVersion>
<compilerVersion>2.3.2</compilerVersion>
</controller>
</template>
</templates>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>generate-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>render</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
You can disable this on a per-controller basis by setting the <compile> attribute to false. If the controller class is not available on the classpath and this setting is false, and exception will be thrown by the plugin and the build will fail.
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>com.webguys</groupId>
<artifactId>string-template-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
<configuration>
<templates>
<template>
<directory>path-to-template-directory</directory>
<name>template-name</name>
<target>path-to-output-filename</target>
<controller>
<className>fully-qualified-class-name</className>
<method>method-to-invoke</method>
<compile>false</compile>
</controller>
</template>
</templates>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>generate-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>render</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>