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 Introduction
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 Mark Hobson
 <markhobson@gmail.com>
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 19 May 2008
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Maven Runtime

 Maven Runtime allows introspection of Maven project metadata at runtime.  Basic artifact information or full Maven 
 project metadata can be obtained for all projects within a given class loader, optionally sorted into dependency order,
 and also for a given class within a project.  These techniques can used by tools wishing to utilize Maven metadata at 
 runtime.
 
 Maven metadata is obtained from one of the two
 {{{http://maven.apache.org/shared/maven-archiver/index.html#class_archive}Maven descriptor files}} automatically 
 generated by the {{{http://maven.apache.org/shared/maven-archiver/}Maven Archiver}}: <<<pom.properties>>> and 
 <<<pom.xml>>> in the <<<META-INF/<groupId>/<artifactId>>>> directory.  The project properties file provides basic 
 artifact information (group id, artifact id and version), whereas the project XML file provides full Maven metadata 
 contained within the project's POM.

 Note that since Maven Runtime uses resources generated by the Maven Archiver, it can only successfully introspect the
 runtime environment when executed from within the packaged project, as opposed to running within an IDE.
 
 <<Note: Maven Runtime requires at least Java 5.>>
 
* Usage

 Instructions on how to use Maven Runtime can be found on the {{{usage.html}usage page}}.

* Examples

 To provide you with better understanding of some usages of Maven Runtime, you can take a look into the following
 examples:

 * {{{examples/introspecting-a-class-loader.html}Introspecting a class loader}}

 * {{{examples/introspecting-a-class.html}Introspecting a class}}