What is the correct/recommended location of TLD file in Maven project

Question

I’m building custom tag which I want make available as single jar file. I seem to be having a problem with tld file and how to include it into build process.

My current folder structure:

src
license.md
    main
        java
            my.package
                class1.java
                class2.java
        resources
            META-INF
                customtag.tld

Part of pom.xml (.tld file is not included into build process by default)

<resources>
<resource>
                <directory>${basedir}/src/main/resources/META-INF</directory>
                <targetPath>META-INF</targetPath>
                <filtering>true</filtering>
                <includes>
                    <include>customtag.tld</include>
                </includes>
 </resource>

The above works but:

1. It doesn’t look nice to me, especially the path for directory
2. In NetBeans extra branch is created in Project view. Needless to say this really looks crappy.
3. I need that entry in pom.xml because otherwise the .tld file will not be included in the jar.

First Question: Is there some setting in Maven which will include ${basedir}/src/main/resources/META-INF folder contents by default?

---

Alternative approach:

src
license.md
ckeditor.tld
    main
        java
            my.package
                class1.java
                class2.java

Part of pom.xml (.tld file is not included into build process by default)

<resource>
                <directory>${basedir}</directory>
                <targetPath>META-INF</targetPath>
                <filtering>true</filtering>
                <includes>
                    <include>customtag.tld</include>
                </includes>
 </resource>

With that approach there is no long path in pom.xml, no extra branch created in Netbeans project view but I’m not sure if that location is correct. I have found many links like this one Where do I put the .tld file so that the resulting JAR file built with maven2 is properly packaged? which say that tld files in project code should be put into src/main/resources/META-INF.

Second Question: What is the correct/recommended location of the .tld file inside the Maven project? Please note that I’m asking about project location and not location in created jar file (it has to be META-INF, I know that).

Answer 1

I think I have managed to fix my problem and here are the answers:

First Question: Is there some setting in Maven which will include ${basedir}/src/main/resources/META-INF folder contents by default?

I have spent fair ammount of time searching the internet and I can say No there is not, you need to write entries in pom.xml that will do that.

Second Question: What is the correct/recommended location of the tld file inside the Maven project?

It seems that correct or recommended location is src/main/resources/META-INF after all.

Solution to my problem: I had copying of my .tld file defined in <resources> on <build> level.

<resources>
    <resource>
         <directory>${basedir}/src/main/resources/META-INF</directory>
         <targetPath>META-INF</targetPath>
         <filtering>true</filtering>
         <includes>
             <include>customtag.tld</include>
         </includes>
     </resource>
<resources>

I have moved that resource into <resources> of maven-resources-plugin. The path to directory is still long but this is something I can live with especially that with that approach I can keep my .tld file in src/main/resources/META-INF and that annoying extra branch in Netbeans Project View is now gone.

<plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.6</version>
        <configuration>
            <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <id>copy-resources</id>
                <phase>validate</phase>
                <goals>
                    <goal>copy-resources</goal>
                </goals>
                <configuration>
                    <outputDirectory>${project.build.outputDirectory}</outputDirectory>
                    <resources>
                        <resource>
                            <directory>${basedir}/src/main/resources/META-INF</directory>
                            <targetPath>META-INF</targetPath>
                            <filtering>true</filtering>
                            <includes>
                                <include>customtag.tld</include>
                            </includes>
                        </resource>
                    </resources>
                </configuration>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>