How to tell M2Eclipse to install jar file as a maven dependency

Question

I want to add jpoller.jar as a maven dependency, so I edited my pom.xml file to include it:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.sadun</groupId>
    <artifactId>jpoller</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.2</version>
</dependency>

Now, as expected, when I compile from the command line I get an error because jpoller isn't in any of the repositories I have listed in my pom, nor could I find one for it. Although I could create a repository for it, I'd rather not at this point. Thus, I get the following error:

[INFO] Failed to resolve artifact.

Missing: ---------- 1) org.sadun:jpoller:jar:1.5.2

Try downloading the file manually from the project website.

Then, install it using the command: mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.sadun -DartifactId=jpoller -Dversion=1.5.2 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file

How can I do this from the M2Eclipse plugin on machines where the maven CLI isn't available?

Solution

How can I do this from the M2Eclipse plugin on machines where the maven CLI isn't available?

Well, simply do it from Eclipse. First, get that jpoller jar and save it somewhere on your file system. Then, in Eclipse, from the top bar, Run > Run Configurations... then right-click on Maven Build and configure the New_configuration freshly created:

• Select an arbitrary Base directory
• Fill the Goals with install:install-file
• Add parameters for each required parameters, without the -D prefix (e.g. file as Parameter name and /path/to/file as Value and so on for groupId, artifactId,packaging and version).

And run this configuration. Or... just install Maven.