---
title: "Compiling IntelliJ Designer Forms with Maven"
date: 2021-02-23T03:59:59+01:00
categories:
    - software
tags:
    - hacking
    - english
    - software engineering
    - maven
keywords:
    - intellij forms
    - maven
    - intellij gui
    - designer
    - forms
    - swing
    - compile

summary: Ever wanted to compile IntelliJ IDEA GUI-Designer forms with maven? I've found a 2021 solution.
showTOC: false
---

In 2021 I worked in a small team of students on an old fashioned Java swing application. To design our forms rather fast, we chose to opt for the IJ-GUI designer.

That turned out to be a rather annoying mistake, trying to package the Software just hours before the deadline.We were unable to come up with a solution to compile the forms on our build server in that short time.
So, we then opted to just let IntelliJ compile the .forms into .java directly, which then cluttered our version control.

Today I present you the fix: A minimal `pom.xml` compiling forms on the fly. A complete minimal working example can be found on my private git: [git.tobiasmanske.de](https://git.tobiasmanske.de/user/rad4day/public/intellij-forms-maven-example/tree/)

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>de.tobiasmanske</groupId>
  <artifactId>example</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
    <intellij.version>203.7148.57</intellij.version>
  </properties>

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>jetbrains.releases</id>
      <url>https://www.jetbrains.com/intellij-repository/releases</url>
    </repository>
    <repository>
      <id>jetbrains.3rdparty</id>
      <url>https://dl.bintray.com/jetbrains/intellij-third-party-dependencies</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.0</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <phase>compile</phase>
            <configuration>
              <target>
                <path id="j2sp">
                  <pathelement location="${project.basedir}/src/main/java"/>
                </path>
                <taskdef name="javac2" classpathref="maven.runtime.classpath" classname="com.intellij.ant.Javac2"/>
                <javac2 destdir="${project.basedir}/target/classes">
                  <src refid="j2sp"/>
                </javac2>
              </target>
            </configuration>
            <goals>
              <goal>run</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.jetbrains.intellij.java</groupId>
      <artifactId>java-gui-forms-rt</artifactId>
      <version>${intellij.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.jetbrains.intellij.java</groupId>
      <artifactId>java-compiler-ant-tasks</artifactId>
      <version>${intellij.version}</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>
```

That's all for today, I hope this helped you, so that you don't struggle with it for as long.