Create A New Maven Project In IntelliJ IDEA

Almost all the articles in Java Helps with a Java project use Apache Maven to create the project. This article shows how to create a new Apache Maven project in IntelliJ IDEA for beginners. Before getting your hands dirty let’s get yourself familiar with some keywords used in the Apache Maven context.

Requirements

• Intellij IDEA
• Apache Maven (Optional)

Apache Maven Terms

Creating A New Maven Project

Step 1:
Open IntelliJ IDEA and go to File → New → Project from the menubar or click on the “New Project” button on the welcome screen.

Step 2:
In the appeared dialog, enter the artifact id as the project name and select a project location to save the project. In the same dialog, select Java as the language along with your desired JDK version. Also, make sure that the Build system is set to Maven. Next, expand the Advanced Settings section and enter your Group Id. Finally, click the “Create” button.

In the following screenshot, I am creating a new project with the Group Id: com.javahelps.helloworld and the Artifact Id: hello-world.

Exploring The Maven Project

The created project will have the following file structure:

hello-world/
├── pom.xml
└── src/
    ├── main/
    │   ├── java/
    │   │   └── com/
    │   │       └── javahelps/
    │   │           └── helloworld/
    │   │               └── Main.java
    │   └── resources/
    └── test/
        └── java/

pom.xml

The pom.xml file contains the groupId, artifactId, version, and Java version for this project. The original pom.xml file may look like the following:

<?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.javahelps.helloworld</groupId>
    <artifactId>hello-world</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

</project>

Suppose you want to add commons-lang3 and commons-collections4 libraries as dependencies to your project, you will have to modify the project as shown 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.javahelps.helloworld</groupId>
    <artifactId>hello-world</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
            <version>3.12.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-collections4</artifactId>
            <version>4.4</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

</project>

You can add any number of dependencies to your project inside the <dependencies> tag. After modifying the pom.xml, make sure to load the changes into IntelliJ IDEA by clicking the popup that appears in the top right corner. Otherwise, right-click on the project and select Maven → Reload Project.

Main.java

Main.java is the main class created for your convenience. You can modify it, delete it or create new classes as you wish. Click the play button on the left side panel next to the class definition or main method to run the project from IntelliJ IDEA.

Maven Command Line

Alternatively, if you have Apache Maven installed, you can also run the following commands from the terminal to build and run the Main class.

mvn compile
mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=com.javahelps.helloworld.Main

Running the following command will compile and package your project into a JAR file.

mvn package

I hope this article helped you create your first Apache Maven project in IntelliJ IDEA. If you find it useful or if you have any questions, please comment below.