Features

• The project object model (POM) is the basis of how Maven works. Development and management of your project is controlled from the the project model. Currently you can store your project object model in an XML file, but we are also working on RDBMS storage using ObjectBridge . Here's what a Maven POM looks like in XML form.
• A single set of Ant files are used to build any number of projects that you are managing. No more keeping track of countless build systems. As improvements are made to the Maven build system all Maven users benefit!
• Integration with Gump. For those who are not familiar with Gump it is a tool used at Jakarta to help projects maintain backward compatibility with their clients. If you have a Maven project descriptor then you can easily participate in nightly Gump builds that will help your project stay abreast of the impact your changes actually have in Java developer community. We are working on our own massive build tool but integration with Gump comes at no cost to Maven users.
• Site publication based on the POM. Once the POM is accurate your developers can easily publish the project's content which includes custom documentation plus Maven's extensive documentation set based on your project's sources. Currently Maven provides the following:
  • Change log document created directly from repository information.
  • Cross referenced sources
  • Source metrics
  • Mailing lists
  • Developer list
  • Dependency list
  • Unit test reports including coverage
  • Article Collection
  • Software Development References
  • Software Development Process Documentation
• Distribution publication based on the POM. Once the POM is setup accurately you can easily publish distributions safely knowing that the distributions being made match exactly what has been tagged in your repository.
• Maven encourages the use of a central repository of JARs. Maven comes with a mechanism that your project's clients can use to download any JARs required for building your project from a central JAR repository much like Perl's CPAN. This allows users of Maven to reuse JARs across projects and encourages communication between projects to ensure backward compatibility issues are dealt with. We are collaborating with the folks at Ibiblio who have graciously allowed the central repository to live on their servers.
• Directory layout guidelines. Maven comes with documentation on how to layout your project's directory structure so that once you learn the layout you can easily navigate any other project that uses Maven.