How do you install a Maven2 plugin?

Question

I found this plugin for Google App Engine development that seems to be what I need.

But I have no idea how to install it.

I downloaded the JAR file from this page but I don't know where to put it:

http://code.google.com/p/maven-gae-plugin/

Could anyone point me in the right direction? I've tried search for installation instructions but nothing is coming up. It seems like some kind of insider secret. Sorry - I'm new to Maven so I apologize if this should be obvious.

This is the pom I'm using:

http://code.google.com/p/thoughtsite/source/browse/trunk/pom.xml

Answer 1

You don't install it, Maven will do that for you. But you need to tell Maven from where it can download the plugin if the plugin is not available in the public repository. So, declare the plugin repository:

<project>
    [...]
    <repositories>
        [...]
        <repository>
            <id>maven-gae-plugin-repo</id>
            <name>maven-gae-plugin repository</name>
            <url>http://maven-gae-plugin.googlecode.com/svn/repository&lt;/url&gt;
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <pluginRepositories>
        [...]
        <pluginRepository>
            <id>maven-gae-plugin-repo</id>
            <name>maven-gae-plugin repository</name>
            <url>http://maven-gae-plugin.googlecode.com/svn/repository&lt;/url&gt;
        </pluginRepository>
    </pluginRepositories>
    [...]
</project>

And use the plugin:

<project>
    [...]
    <build>
        <plugins>
            [...]
            <plugin>
                <groupId>net.kindleit</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-gae-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>[plugin version]</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    [...]
</project>

And let Maven do its job. This is actually documented in the Usage page.