Getting Started with Maven | Maven Preparation | What Is Apache Maven?

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The build tool that can be called the de facto standard for Java programmers is “Apache Maven.”

It is an open source build tool developed by the Apache Software Foundation. There are several reasons Maven is widely supported.

  • Originally, a build tool called Ant was widely used in Java. Maven can be seen as Ant’s successor, and it naturally moved from Ant to Maven until Maven eventually became the de facto standard.

  • Maven’s greatest achievement was preparing the “Central Repository.” This is a server that centrally manages various libraries and programs used in Java. Maven connects to this server, downloads the required programs, and installs them into the project. In other words, developers do not need to install or manage libraries directly. Many build tools other than Maven also use Maven Central Repository.

  • Maven creates build files in XML. There may be different opinions about using XML, but XML is widely used as a way to describe necessary information clearly and structurally, so it is relatively easy to accept. Also, because XML has a solid structure and is easy to analyze, development tools often provide dedicated visual editors for it.

There are many other advantages, but the fact that Maven manages project libraries and related information together in a relatively easy-to-understand XML-based format is enough reason to use it.

Maven vs Ant

Ant and Maven are both build tools provided by Apache. The main purpose of build tools is to make the project build process easier.

There are many differences between Ant and Maven, as shown below.

Ant Maven
Ant has no official conventions, so you must provide project structure information in the build.xml file. Maven has conventions for placing source code, compiled code, and other files. Therefore, you do not need to provide project structure information in the pom.xml file.
Ant is procedural. You must provide information about what to do and when to do it through code. You need to specify the order. Maven is declarative, and everything is defined in the pom.xml file.
Ant has no life cycle. Maven has a life cycle.
It is a tool. It is a framework.
Its main function is as a build tool. It is a project management tool.
Ant scripts cannot be reused. Maven plugins can be reused.
It is generally less preferred than Maven. It is preferred over Ant.