Eclipse: Dependency Management

Question

What are some methods of utilising Eclipse for Dependency Management?

Answer 1

I really like the The Maven Integration for Eclipse (m2eclipse, Eclipse m2e). I use it purely for the dependency management feature. It's great not having to go out and download a bunch of new jars new each time I set up a project.

Answer 2

A simpler way to go is the Maven Eclipse plugin (as opposed to a Maven plugin for Eclipse). It's simply a maven plugin that generates the .project and .classpath file based on the contents of the pom, you just run mvn eclipse:eclipse and you're done. It uses a classpath variable in Eclipse to locate the local maven repo.

I personally prefer this approach most of the time because you have more control over when the maven plugin updates are done. It's also one less Eclipse plugin to deal with. The GUI features of the m2eclipse plugin in the latest version is pretty nice, though.

There's also an alternative to the m2eclipse plugin called Q4E, now called Eclipse IAM.

Answer 3

Another option is ivy. Ivy has eclipse integration as well.

A comparison of maven and ivy can be found here: http://ant.apache.org/ivy/m2comparison.html