Set directory in Maven Antrun Plugin - maven

Question

I've downloaded jquery-ui to my webapp which has a build.xml for compressing and minifying.
Now I would like to run this build.xml from within my pom.xml:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
<configuration>
<target>
<ant antfile="src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery-ui/build/build.xml" />
</target>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
But now the behavior for this buildfile is wrong. It creates a dist folder on the wrong place. Here's thebuild.xml` from jquery-ui: https://github.com/jquery/jquery-ui/blob/master/build/build.xml
It creates the dist folder on the same place where pom.xml is (same place i run mvn clean package) and it should create it in src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery-ui/build
Is it possible to run build.xml from a specified directory (working directory)?
Can't access the documentation for the Ant task: http://ant.apache.org/manual/CoreTasks/ant.html
EDIT: pom.xml
<?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.example.myproject</groupId>
<artifactId>myproject</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>myproject</name>
<dependencies>
<!-- ... -->
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<!-- ... -->
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<warName>myproject</warName>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>install</id>
<phase>install</phase>
<goals>
<goal>sources</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>compile</phase>
<configuration>
<executable>make</executable>
<workingDirectory>src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery</workingDirectory>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>compile</phase>
<configuration>
<target>
<ant antfile="build.xml" dir="src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery-ui/build" />
</target>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
On running mvn clean package I'm getting the following errors in minify target of jquery-ui's build.xml:
[apply] build/minify-js.sh: Line 3: /home/danny/myproject/dist/jquery-ui-1.9pre/ui/minified/jquery-ui.min.js: File or directory not found
The correct path should be ${basedir}/src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery-ui/build/dist/jquery-ui-1.9pre/ui/minified/jquery-ui.min.js instead of the above mentioned...

Answer 1

According to http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/ant.html, you can use the dir attribute:
<mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/jquery-ui" />
<ant antfile="src/main/webapp/resources/js/jquery-ui/build/build.xml" dir="${project.build.directory}/jquery-ui" />
On the other hand, are you really sure you want to create the build directory underneath your src directory? Shouldn't this go into target rather?

Answer 2

I would recommend to use the maven plugin instead of Ant calls. Based on the docs maven-minify-plugin to do what you need. The plugin can be found in Maven Central. And furthermore you will find the maven-plugin-documention how to use the maven-plugin.