Package provided dependencies in a single zip file - maven

Question

I have put dependency jars in separate folder but expecting folder should be zipped instead of direct folder. I tried using assembly descriptor but it is creating separate folder with dependencies but not zipping it (folder should not be there, only zip file is expected). Please suggest me better approach to accommodate my dependency jars in a single zip file
pom.xml
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<source>1.7</source>
<target>1.7</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.9</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>copy-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<includeScope>provided</includeScope>
<outputDirectory>/Users/venugopal/Documents/providedDependencies</outputDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/archive_format.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
<phase>package</phase> <!-- append to the packaging phase. -->
<goals>
<goal>single</goal> <!-- goals == mojos -->
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
archive_format.xml (Assembly descriptor
<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>
<baseDirectory>/</baseDirectory>
<formats>
<format>zip</format>
</formats>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<directory>/Users/vp/Documents/providedDependencies</directory>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</assembly>

Answer 1

If I understand your requirement right, you want to package all provided dependencies into a zip file.
You are headed the wrong way using maven-dependency-plugin. You should use maven-assembly-plugin and its dependencySet:
<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>
<baseDirectory>/</baseDirectory>
<formats>
<format>zip</format>
</formats>
<dependencySets>
<dependencySet>
<scope>provided</scope>
<outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
<useProjectArtifact>false</useProjectArtifact>
</dependencySet>
</dependencySets>
</assembly>
Setting the scope to provided will make sure only the provided dependencies are considered in this set. We need to exclude the project artifact, otherwise it will be included by default.