How to configure Maven2 to use yWorks UML Doclet

Since the Javadoc plugin for Maven2 does support custom doclets, yWorks UML Doclet does work with Maven 2. To configure Maven to use yWorks UML Doclet, you need to adjust your pom.xml file accordingly:

...
<build>
  <plugins>
    ...
    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
      <configuration>
      <doclet>ydoc.doclets.YStandard</doclet>
      <docletPath>[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/lib/ydoc.jar:[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/lib/class2svg.jar:[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/resources</docletPath>
      <additionalparam>-umlautogen</additionalparam>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
    ...
  </plugins>
</build>
...

Note: If working on Windows, you should use '\' instead of '/' and ';' instead of ':' in any path arguments.
Note: Since yWorks UML Doclet 3.0, the class2svg.jar library no longer exists and therefore should not be referenced in docletpath anymore.

Any yWorks UML Doclet specific options go into the <additionalparam> argument. For instance, you want to use yWorks UML Doclet's ExcludeFilter and UML generation, the <additionalparam> argument would then be:

...
<additionalparam>-filter ydoc.filters.ExcludeFilter -filterpath [yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/lib/ydoc.jar -umlautogen</additionalparam>
...

Maven2 will (unfortunately) ignore the following configuration parameters when using a custom doclet:

    author
    bottom
    breakiterator
    charset
    docfilessubdirs
    docencoding
    doctitle
    excludedocfilessubdir
    footer
    groups
    header
    helpfile
    links
    linksource
    offlineLinks
    nodeprecated
    nodeprecatedlist
    nocomment
    nohelp
    noindex
    nonavbar
    noqualifier
    nosince
    notree
    serialwarn
    splitindex
    stylesheet
    taglet
    tagletpath
    tags
    use
    version
    windowtitle

So, if you normally use one of the above parameters, you have to include the standard javadoc option (i.e. the option as it is used when invoking javadoc directly from command line, see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/windows/javadoc.html#options for additional information) in the <additionalparam> argument.

For example, if you want to link to existing javadoc-generated documentation of external referenced classes. To link to the Sun JDK 1.5 API, you usually set up Maven's Javadoc plugin with something along the lines of

...
<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
    <links>
      <link>http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/</link>
    </links>
  </configuration>
</plugin>
...

Since <links> is ignored by Maven when you are using a custom doclet, you have to write it this way:

...
<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
    <doclet>ydoc.doclets.YStandard</doclet>
     <docletPath>[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/lib/ydoc.jar:[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/lib/class2svg.jar:[yworks_uml_doclet_dir]/resources</docletPath>
    <additionalparam>-link http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/ -umlautogen</additionalparam>
  </configuration>
</plugin>
...

Note: Since yWorks UML Doclet 3.0, the class2svg.jar library no longer exists and therefore should not be referenced in docletpath anymore.