Maven Folder Layout: Should I host tests in EAR or its submodules?

Let me give you some practical information on how to organize integration tests with Maven so that other people struggling with it can do the right thing.

I ended up getting recommendations from the fantastic (even if somewhat old) Better Builds with Maven , as well as Codehaus Maven and an integration testing guide .

• Use the top level project of the aggregator:

  myproject
      myproject-ear
      myproject-war
      myproject-ejb
      ...
      myproject-integration-tests
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• As suggested by mchamati , each module tests itself with unit tests (as before). Unit tests are fast and can run on every build.

• Also for unit tests, it turns out that my initial strategy was not that bad. I still have several modules tied to the EAR as managed dependencies.

• Have a separate module for integration tests, its packaging type can be pom; (you won't be creating a real deployable artifact from this project, and also, as the number of tests starts to grow, it might make sense to turn it into another different pom aggregator):

  <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">
      <parent>
          <artifactId>myproject</artifactId>
          <groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
          <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
      </parent>
      <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  
      <groupId>com.myproject</groupId>
      <artifactId>myproject-integration-tests</artifactId>
      <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <packaging>pom</packaging>
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• The following Maven integration tests should go to src/it
  
  :

  <build>
      <testSourceDirectory>src/it</testSourceDirectory>
      <plugins>
          <plugin>
              <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
              <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
              <version>3.1</version>
              <configuration>
                  <source>1.7</source>
                  <target>1.7</target>
              </configuration>
              <executions>
                  <execution>
                      <goals>
                          <goal>testCompile</goal>
                      </goals>
                  </execution>
              </executions>
          </plugin> 
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• Use failsafe to run integration tests:

  <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.17</version>
      <configuration>
          <encoding>${project.build.sourceEncoding}</encoding>
      </configuration>
      <dependencies>
          <dependency>
              <groupId>org.apache.maven.surefire</groupId>
              <artifactId>surefire-junit47</artifactId>
              <version>2.17</version>
          </dependency>
      </dependencies>
      <executions>
          <execution>
              <goals>
                  <goal>integration-test</goal>
                  <goal>verify</goal>
              </goals>
          </execution>
      </executions>
  </plugin>
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• Have your integration-project import the ear project dependencies (and whatever else you need). I'm not sure if this is considered good practice as it hasn't been mentioned in any guides, but it works very well for me.

  <dependency>
      <groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
      <artifactId>my-project-ear</artifactId>
      <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <type>pom</type>
  </dependency>
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• Centralize arquillian relevant configuration in the integration tests module:

  <dependencyManagement>
      <dependencies>
          <dependency>
              <groupId>org.jboss.arquillian</groupId>
              <artifactId>arquillian-bom</artifactId>
              <version>${arquillian.version}</version>
              <scope>import</scope>
              <type>pom</type>
          </dependency>
      </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>
  
  <dependencies>
      <dependency>
          <groupId>junit</groupId>
          <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
          <version>4.11</version>
          <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
          <groupId>org.jboss.arquillian.junit</groupId>
          <artifactId>arquillian-junit-container</artifactId>
          <version>${arquillian.version}</version>
          <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      <!-- Arquillian container related dependencies, etc -->
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• Follow the failover naming convention for test files.

  src/it/java
      com/mycompany/myproject
          mypackage
              MyIT.java 
              MySecondIT.java
          anotherpackage
              YetAnotherIT.java  
  
        
  
          
          
          
        
  
      

• Profit

  In the top-level aggregator project:

  • mvn test
    
    ⇒ Runs quick unit tests full of mocks
  • mvn verify
    
    ⇒ Performs real integration / functional / acceptance tests (may be slow)

Additional hints: If you are using a CI server like Jenkins , set up your nightly builds to run integration tests (i.e. get a build call mvn verify

). Do not deploy unverified builds to homologation or production servers.