java - Test-resources of dependencies not in classpath?

Question

I have a multi module Spring project that I set up using Maven:

my-root (pom)
    - my-logic
    - my-webapp (depending on my-logic)
    - my-consoleapp (depending on my-logic)

My Test classes inherit from AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests and use @ContextCofiguration for setting up the ApplicationContext.

E.g. the test class for a Spring Controller:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = { 
  "classpath:applicationContext-logic-test.xml",
  "classpath:applicationContext-web-test.xml"})
public class ControllerTest extends AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests {

  @Autowired
    private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
    ...
}

As you can see there is a config XML per module. I have seperate configs for tesing, residing in test/resources of each module (and additionaly having the suffix "-test"). This all works (the class compiles, runs and the JUnit tests are successful) if I run the JUnit test in Eclipse.

Now to my problem: Running the test using Maven will NOT work! (e.g. with "Run As">"Maven install" on my-root (I use m2eclipse)). Specifically, it will throw the following exception:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [applicationContext-logic-test.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist`

It seems that Maven does not add the files from my-logic/src/test/resources to the classpath that is set up when running the unit tests of my-webapp.

How can I fix that?

Answer 1

It seems that Maven does not add the files from my-logic/src/test/resources to the classpath that is set up when running the unit tests of my-webapp.

No, indeed, it doesn't. First, Maven uses binary dependencies that are always resolved through the local repository. And second, binary dependencies don't include test stuff.

But what you could do is:

1. configure the my-logic module to create a test JAR using jar:test-jar
2. configure the my-webapp module to depend on this test JAR (using a test scope).

For #1, you'll have to configure the Maven Jar Plugin in the pom.xml of my-logic:

<project>
  <build>
    <plugins>
     <plugin>
       <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
       <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
       <version>2.2</version>
       <executions>
         <execution>
           <goals>
             <goal>test-jar</goal>
           </goals>
         </execution>
       </executions>
     </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

And Maven will create a JAR with the content of target/test-classes during package and install / deploy it.

For #2, declare a dependency on the test JAR in the pom.xml of my-webapp:

<project>
  ...
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.myco.app</groupId>
      <artifactId>foo</artifactId>
      <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <type>test-jar</type>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
  ...
</project>

That should do it.