Maven. Importing

Keep projects files in

Select this checkbox to specify the location of your project's files after the import. For example, when you import a project and want to keep the iml file and .idea directory files in a specific location instead of the default one. By default, IntelliJ IDEA places project's files next to your pom.xml.

Store generated project files externally

For the already linked projects, whatever you have previously selected remains intact. For newly imported projects, this option is selected by default.

If you unselect this option, the generated .iml and library files will be stored inside the .idea directory.

It is helpful in the following cases:

• sharing the IDE-specific module settings via VCS since the .idea directory stores project-level settings.

• correctly opening a project that contains both regular IntelliJ IDEA modules and Maven modules.

• accessing a project faster when you open it since IntelliJ IDEA reads the .iml files first and then starts the importing process.

If you want to store the generated iml and library files externally in idea.system.path, keep this option selected.

Detect compiler automatically

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA uses the compiler that was automatically detected and is specified in the Use compiler list in Settings/Preferences| Build, Execution, Deployment | Compiler | Java Compiler. Unselect this option if you want to manually specify the compiler.

Create IntelliJ IDEA modules for aggregator projects (with 'pom' packaging)

If this checkbox is selected, IntelliJ IDEA Maven Modules will be created for each module included in the pom.xml file of an aggregative project, provided that its packaging is set to 'pom'.

Create module groups for multi-module Maven projects

If this checkbox is selected, IntelliJ IDEA will create a module group from an aggregative Maven project, with the nested modules included in this group.

Keep source and test folders on reimport

If this checkbox is selected, all the source and test folders will be preserved on every import.

If this checkbox is cleared, all previously configured source and test folders will be removed on every import.

By default, this checkbox is set as follows:

• For new projects: the checkbox is cleared.

• For already imported projects: the checkbox is selected.

Exclude build directory PROJECT_ROOT/target

Select this checkbox to exclude a build directory from the project. This might be useful, if you want to speed up the project's importing process. If this checkbox is cleared, IntelliJ IDEA will index files in the build directory every time you import a project, which might take additional time.

Use Maven output directories

If this checkbox is not selected, the build will be created in the regular IntelliJ IDEA's output directory USER_HOME\IdeaProjects\<project>\classes\Production\. If this checkbox is selected, the build is generated in the Maven's output directory, and the results of IntelliJ IDEA's compilation are reused. However, IntelliJ IDEA itself does not reuse Maven build results, and performs compilation from scratch.

Generated sources folders

Specify the directory of your source root when you reimport a project.

You can select one of the following options:

• Detect automatically This is a default option. When you select this option, IntelliJ IDEA automatically detects the location of the generated sources. IntelliJ IDEA also detects which directory to mark as a source root. However, IntelliJ IDEA searches for the generated sources only in target/generated-sources and target/generated-sources/* directories.

• target/generated-sources This option enables you to mark the directory as source root manually.

• subdirectories of "target/generated-sources" This option enables you to mark a subdirectory as a source root manually.

• Don't detect This option lets you skip the detection process.

Phase to be used for folders update

Select a Maven phase to be used for folders update. This might be useful, if you adjust your plugins so that additional sources are loaded at some phase.

Automatically download

Select the corresponding checkboxes to automatically download sources (Sources) and documentation comments (Documentation) on opening Maven projects.

You can select the Annotations option that lets you automatically dowload custom annotations. IntelliJ IDEA searches for those annotations in the JetBrains repository and downloads them as Maven artifacts during the project's import.

Dependency types

Use this field to specify dependency types that you want to include when you reimport your project.

VM options for importer

Use this field to specify VM options. The default option is -Xmx512m.

When you specify the options, follow the following rules:

• Use spaces to separate individual options, for example, -client -ea -Xmx1024m.

• If an option includes spaces, enclose the spaces or the argument that contains the spaces in double quotes, for example, some" "arg or "some arg".

• If an option includes double quotes (for example as part of the argument), escape the double quotes by means of the backslashes, for example, -Dmy.prop=\"quoted_value\".

JDK for importer

Use this list to specify which JDK to use when the maven project is imported.

You can choose one of the following options:

• Internal JRE - this is a default option that uses the installation directory for JRE.

• JDK versions - this option uses your project's JDK.

• Use JAVA_HOME - this option uses the value that is specified in the user's environment variable settings.