Best practice for project directory structure in java

[Rajeev Srikhar]

Hello all. Pic shows the project directory which I used for my java project(without IDE). Just tell me whether the structure is correct or not i.e keeping localization files in localization folder, postgres jar file in database folder , dbconfig.properties file in config folder etc

[Les Morgan]

Rajeev,

If you are doing this for yourself, then you are the judge of right or wrong, but if you are doing this at work, then your work standards should be implemented.

Rajeev Pedada wrote:Hello all. Pic shows the project directory which I used for my java project(without IDE). Just tell me whether the structure is correct or not i.e keeping localization files in localization folder, postgres jar file in database folder , dbconfig.properties file in config folder etc

[Stephan van Hulst]

It appears you're using a Maven project layout.

Personally, I'm a fan of keeping localization and configuration files in a hierarchy that reflects the packages where they are used.

For instance, if you have a package that deals with persistence, let's say tld.company.project.repo, then I would put my DB configuration in a file src/main/config/tld/company/project/repo/db.properties, and add src/main/config as one of my project's resource folders.

Whatever you do, be consistent.

[Carey Brown]

Maven separates these two:
src/main/java
src/test/java

You don't want your release package to include your tests.

[Stephan van Hulst]

Maybe you can elaborate Carey, I'm not sure how this relates to OP's question?

[Rob Spoor]

Stephan van Hulst wrote:Maybe you can elaborate Carey, I'm not sure how this relates to OP's question?

There appears to be a test package next to the customexception and service packages.

[Stephan van Hulst]

Ah, I missed that! Yes, Carey is correct, test cases should go in src/test/java.

[Rajeev Srikhar]

But after compiling , class files of java files present in src and test should be in same directory ,right?

[Stephan van Hulst]

No. After compilation, resources should be in the same directory as the compiled classes (somewhere within the 'target' folder, but test classes should live in a separate directory.

When running tests, you should add both the compiled main classes directory and the compiled test classes directory on the classpath. When running the application, only the compiled main classes should be on the classpath.

If you're really using Maven, all of this happens automatically and you don't have to worry about it.

[Stephan van Hulst]

I made a small test application in Maven, with:

src/main/java/com/example/Greeting.java

src/main/resources/com/example/hello.txt

src/test/java/com/example/GreetingTest.java

After compilation, Maven puts these files here:

target/classes/com/example/Greeting.class

target/classes/com/example/hello.txt

target/test-classes/com/example/GreetingTest.class

[Tim Holloway]

Stephan van Hulst wrote:It appears you're using a Maven project layout.

Personally, I'm a fan of keeping localization and configuration files in a hierarchy that reflects the packages where they are used.

For instance, if you have a package that deals with persistence, let's say tld.company.project.repo, then I would put my DB configuration in a file src/main/config/tld/company/project/repo/db.properties, and add src/main/config as one of my project's resource folders.

Whatever you do, be consistent.

For Maven to pick it up properly, that should be src/main/resources/tld/company/project/repo/db.properties

That will cause the properties file to automatically be copied into target/classes/tld/company/project/repo/db.properties without any additional tweaking of the POM.

[Tim Holloway]

Note that for web applications, the path would normally be

src/main/resources/WEB-INF/classes/tld/company/project/repo/db.properties

[Stephan van Hulst]

I agree. I should have mentioned I use my proposed method when I have a lot of config files and localized resource bundles, so I have different folders for configuration, localization and other resources.