Why does maven not copy the properties files during the build process? - maven

Question

Nothing I've found has been able to help me solve this one specific case. I recently switched from a plain old java web app project (which was working) to a maven web project. I get the following runtime exception:
java.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find bundle for base name com.myapp.config, locale en
I am using Netbeans to create a JSF 2.0, Spring, and Hibernate web app. I have the following directory structure:
src\main\java\com\myapp Contains config.properties
src\main\resources Empty
target\myapp\WEB-INF\classes\com\myapp Contains compiled class files without config.properties
src\main\java\com\myapp Contains config.properties
Inspection of the WAR file in the target folder does not show any sign of the properties file so it's as if the Maven build plug-in is not copying over properties files. I know there is a tag you can place inside the pom but it didn't work for me. The link below mentions that the resources folder (empty for me) has its contents included during the build but if that is the case, how do you do it from Netbeans? I just want the properties file to be packaged with my war so it is accessible when it is deployed to the server.
http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/examples/adding-filtering-webresources.html
pom.xml:
<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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.myapp</groupId>
<artifactId>myapp</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>myapp</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>java.net</id>
<name>Repository hosting the Java EE 6 artifacts</name>
<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.faces</groupId>
<artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
<version>2.1</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
<version>6.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-hibernate3</artifactId>
<version>2.0.8</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.amazonaws</groupId>
<artifactId>aws-java-sdk</artifactId>
<version>1.1.8</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>net.authorize</groupId>
<artifactId>java-anet-sdk</artifactId>
<version>1.4.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<version>5.1.15</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.2</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3.2</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.1.1</version>
<configuration>
<failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<finalName>${artifactId}</finalName>
</build>
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>endorsed</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>sun.boot.class.path</name>
</property>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<!-- javaee6 contains upgrades of APIs contained within the JDK itself.
As such these need to be placed on the bootclasspath, rather than classpath of the
compiler.
If you don't make use of these new updated API, you can delete the profile.
On non-SUN jdk, you will need to create a similar profile for your jdk, with the similar property as sun.boot.class.path in Sun's JDK.-->
<compilerArguments>
<bootclasspath>${settings.localRepository}/javax/javaee-endorsed-api/6.0/javaee-endorsed-api-6.0.jar${path.separator}${sun.boot.class.path}</bootclasspath>
</compilerArguments>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-endorsed-api</artifactId>
<version>6.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>
<properties>
<netbeans.hint.deploy.server>gfv3ee6</netbeans.hint.deploy.server>
</properties>

Answer 1

Maven doesn't copy resources from the java source tree by default, but you can get it do that by adding this to your pom.xml:
<build>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java</directory>
<excludes><exclude>**/*.java</exclude></excludes>
</resource>
</resources>
</build>
Make sure you exclude the java source files.
From https://rogerkeays.com/how-to-change-mavens-default-resource-folder

Answer 2

What is your project's build path configured to be in Netbeans? You might try changing it to src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/classes. This way class files compiled from your src/main/java folder and any resources you have under src/main/resources should get included in the generated WAR. You would then be able to access your config.properties file if you place it under the src/main/resources folder.
You might also review any includes sections in your pom.xml and ensure you're not accidentally excluding something (if you explicitly include some things, you're likely implicitly excluding everything else).

Answer 3

By default maven will include all files under resources folder. If your properties files are not in the resource folder, then you need to include the following in the pom.xml file under the build section.
<build>
/* other tags like <plugins> goes here */
<sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java</directory>
<includes>
<include>**/*.xml</include>
</includes>
</resource>
</resources>
/* other tags like <plugins> goes here */
</build>

Answer 4

Try putting your config.properties under src\main\resources\com\myapp. I was able to test this on a local project. I'm running Maven 3.0.2.
Created a mvn sample project with the webapp archetype:
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.mycompany.app -DartifactId=my-webapp -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp
Created a directory at src/main/resources/com/foo and put a foo.properties file under it.
Ran a build:
mvn clean install
Then, when looking in the resulting target directory, the foo.properties file appears:
ls -al target/my-webapp/WEB-INF/classes/com/foo/
-rw-r--r-- 1 sblaes staff 4 Apr 2 22:09 foo.properties
You might try those steps on your machine. If that works, then start trying to simplify your POM above by removing things from it to see if it starts working. Trial and error is no fun, but I just don't see anything above that should be breaking it.

Answer 5

Huge gotcha for this:
when your resources are in "test/resources" (e.g. .properties files for tests)
maven doesn't copy them to target, so they're not in the classpath
Check whether your "packaging" is set to "pom" in the pom.xml:
<packaging>pom</packaging>
Fix is:
change your packaging to "jar" or "war" instead