Let us get started with Apache maven..

                          

Hello friends...

Apache maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of Project Object Model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.

Maven follows a set of standards including,

• Project life cycle.
• Dependency management system.
• Logic for executing plugin goals at life cycle phases.

Projects become IDE agnostic, by providing a consistent structure, and making modifications easier in the future. 

Maven addresses two aspects of building software. 

1. First, it describes how software is built.
2. Second, it describes dependencies.

It uses conventions for the build procedure, and only exceptions need to be written down. But in earlier tools it is not. An XML file describes the software project being built, its dependencies on other external modules and components, the build order, directories, and required plug-ins.

Maven dynamically downloads Java libraries and Maven plug-ins from one or more repositories(ex: Maven 2 Central Repository) and stores them in a local cache. The local cache of downloaded artifacts and  public repositories can be updated. 
This can be used to build and manage projects written in different other languages such as, C#, Ruby, Scala.  Maven projects are hosted by Apache Software Foundation. It is built using a plugin based architecture that allows to make use of any application controllable through standard input. 

You will learn how to use Maven in your projects in the next post.