As part of the distribution, Spring DM provides a Maven archetype which creates the basic structure of a Java project that uses Spring DM, especially useful to new users. To run the archetype (and create the new project), simply run the following command line:

mvn archetype:generate

The maven plugin will display a selection of possible archetype, from which you should pick spring-osgi-bundle-archetype (Spring-OSGi archetype) (currently number 32), and will request input regarding the project about to be created. A list of all available archetypes included with the plugin and their versions is available here.

Note that it is still possible to select the osgi archetype directly from the command line (i.e. the old way of using the archetype):

mvn archetype:create \
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.springframework.osgi \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=spring-osgi-bundle-archetype \
-DarchetypeVersion=   \
-DgroupId=<your-project-groupId>  \
-DartifactId=<your-project-artifactId> \
-Dversion=<your-project-version>

	Note
	The command above should be invoked as one line - the \ is used as a convenience to break the long line into smaller pieces

In both cases, the result of the commands is a Maven 2 project that defines two packages (one public and one private) and two Spring configurations: src/main/resources/META-INF/spring/bundle-context.xml and src/main/resources/META-INF/spring/bundle-context-osgi.xml The project is packaged as an OSGi bundle.

Notice that by default, the project does not contain a MANIFEST.MF for your project. The Maven infrastructure will generate it, either through SpringSource Bundlor (the default) or Apache Felix bundle plug-in. To generate the manifest, run the following (from the project root):

mvn package

	Note
	To avoid the confusion between the generated artifacts and maintained files, the manifest file resides under META-INF folder while Spring configuration files under src/main/resources/META-INF directory.

This will compile your project, pack it as a jar and create the OSGi manifest based on your classes under /META-INF folder (so that users running Eclipse PDE can use it right away.