want different maven project structure - maven

Question

Trying to understand maven flow.Need to create a folder called 'my-source' and copy multiple files in the same folder.
And i want a maven build zip file which should contain 'my-source' folder and its contents.How do i do that?Where ever articles i refer am seeing only java project/folder structure examples.
Also i have seen sourcedirectory/outputdirectory. Not sure where i can modify these values as i couldnot find location of effectivepom
So please give me the process to fulfil my requirement

Answer 1

In order to create a zip file with all your contents you will have to use the maven assembly plugin in your pom.xml. Apart from this, you will need one more file (say bin.xml) that will tell which all files you want to be packaged in the zip. The assembly plugin in the pom.xml will simply point to the bin.xml file.
See a sample code for pom.xml below.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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.abc</groupId>
<artifactId>xyz</artifactId>
<version>3.1.3</version>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin> <!-- Create a zip file with the contents you want deployed -->
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.5.5</version>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/bin.xml</descriptor> // very important. This is where we will tell where our bin.xml is located
</descriptors>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Now create a folder structure like src/assembly and add a file with the name bin.xml. See below for a sample code that should go inside bin.xml.
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
<id>distrib</id>
<formats>
<format>zip</format>
</formats>
<includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<directory>${project.basedir}/my-source</directory> // the folder that you want to the packaged in the zip file
<outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory> // the location within the zip file where your folder should be copied. In this case it will place the my-source directory at the root level of the zip file.
<useDefaultExcludes>true</useDefaultExcludes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</assembly>