How to change maven task order? - maven

Question

I'm trying to use lesscss-mvn this plugin to compile all less into css.
But the thing is, before that I need to copy all the less files from the other folder.
However, it seems in maven ,it's execute less compile first. How can I to change maven task order?
Here is less-css xml:
...Clean task, remove all files in target/app1/
... Here is to copy all less files from another folder to ${project.basedir}/target/app1/styles/less
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.lesscss</groupId>
<artifactId>lesscss-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.7.0.1.1</version>
<configuration>
<sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/target/app1/styles/less</sourceDirectory>
<outputDirectory>${project.basedir}/target/app1/styles/css</outputDirectory>
<compress>true</compress>
<includes>
<include>main.less</include>
</includes>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>compile</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
When I run this, err message is some error like:
C:/project/MyApp/target/app1/styles/less is not existed.
I am so sure this is because maven run compile less task first. (Clean all files first, and compile less. There is no files in target/ now. So maven throw an error)
How to make maven run copy task first?
Thx for your help.

Answer 1

Goal cannot be changed, but you can change phase when the goal compile is executed:
<execution>
<phase>process-test-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>compile</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
Available phases: http://maven.apache.org/ref/3.2.3/maven-core/lifecycles.html