Rapid Testing Using the Jetty Plugin

Normally, testing a web application involves compiling Java sources, creating a WAR and deploying it to a web container.

Using the Jetty Plugin enables you to quickly test your web application by skipping the last two steps. By default the Jetty Plugin scans target/classes for any changes in your Java sources and src/main/webapp for changes to your web sources. The Jetty Plugin will automatically reload the modified classes and web sources.

To use the Jetty Plugin just add the following in your pom.xml:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.1.10</version>
        <configuration>
          <scanIntervalSeconds>10</scanIntervalSeconds>
          <connectors>
            <connector implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.nio.SelectChannelConnector">
              <port>8080</port>
              <maxIdleTime>60000</maxIdleTime>
            </connector>
          </connectors>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
  </build>
  ...
</project>

Then start Jetty:

  mvn jetty:run

The command will block with Jetty listening on port 8080.

Check the Jetty Plugin documentation for more details.