Drools decision tables precompilation using Maven - excel

Question

According to the drools 6.3 documentation, section 4.2.2.3 :
The KIE plugin for Maven ensures that artifact resources are validated and pre-compiled, it is recommended that this is used at all times. To use the plugin simply add it to the build section of the Maven pom.xml
Consequently, my pom.xml is :
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.drools</groupId>
<artifactId>drools-compiler</artifactId>
<version>6.3.0.Final-redhat-9</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.drools</groupId>
<artifactId>drools-decisiontables</artifactId>
<version>6.3.0.Final-redhat-9</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.kie</groupId>
<artifactId>kie-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.3.0.Final-redhat-9</version>
<extensions>true</extensions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
I placed my decision table file, let's call it rules.xls, in the src/main/resources/my/company/package/. The one and only other file in my Maven project is the kmodule.xml file, which is in src/main/resources/META-INF/ and contains the minimal code :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kmodule xmlns="http://jboss.org/kie/6.0.0/kmodule"/>
Because I removed all the other dependencies (including the one that contains the Java objects used in the decision table), I was expecting drools to launch an error message of type cannot find symbol.
But when I try to clean install the project using Maven, the compilation succeed, a JAR file is created and it does contain the kmodule.xml and rules.xls files at the exact location where I placed them. No additional file generated during compilation, no error, no warning, nothing. Just a plain JAR with my files, a MANIFEST.MF file and a maven directory under META-INF.
In the maven trace, here are the plugins activated (in that order) :
[INFO] --- maven-clean-plugin:2.4.1:clean
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.5:resources
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:2.3.2:compile
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.5:testResources
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:2.3.2:testCompile
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:2.10:test
[INFO] --- maven-jar-plugin:2.3.2:jar
[INFO] --- maven-install-plugin:2.3.1:install
Nothing about the kie plugin. Any hint to activate the rules compilation at build time ?

Answer 1

In order to activate kie-maven-plugin it is also necessary to specify the correct packaging type in your pom.xml
<packaging>kjar</packaging>

Answer 2

I finally did find a way to activate the plugin. I added this to my pom.xml :
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.kie</groupId>
<artifactId>kie-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.3.0.Final-redhat-9</version>
<extensions>true</extensions>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>brms-rules-compilation</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>build</goal>
</goals>
<inherited>false</inherited>
<configuration>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
And now get a Drools compilation trace including :
[INFO] --- kie-maven-plugin:6.3.0.Final-redhat-9:build
[main] INFO org.drools.compiler.kie.builder.impl.KieRepositoryImpl - Adding KieModule from resource: FileResource[...]
I'm no Maven guru, this solution may not be the best (I even do not entirely understand what I wrote as a Maven perspective), so I would be glad to get an easier one.