How to Build a Maven Archetype Scaffold for Spring Boot Projects

What Is a Scaffold

A scaffold is an infrastructure tool that quickly generates a project's framework code and file structure, providing a standardized way for developers to set up a system with basic functionality and architecture early in the development cycle.

Why Scaffolding Matters

In micro‑service architectures, companies often split monolithic or heavy micro‑service systems into modules (e.g., product, order, user, inventory) or domain‑driven designs (e.g., insurance, claims, payment). Manually creating each micro‑service repeats effort, risks errors, and wastes resources. A scaffold that pre‑generates common layers such as persistence, logging, exception handling, and permission control reduces risk and improves efficiency.

Creating a Scaffold

3.1 Write a Project Template

Start with a base project template that includes common dependencies like MyBatis‑Plus, Redis, Logback, Hutool, and Swagger‑UI. You can build your own or use an existing Spring Boot template.

3.2 Generate the Scaffold

3.2.1 Open the Template in IDEA

Open the base project in IDEA and verify the Maven configuration path, ensuring it remains consistent.

D:/Program Files/apache-maven-3.2.5

D:\Program Files\apache-maven-3.2.5\conf\settings.xml

D:\Program Files\apache-maven-3.2.5\repository

3.2.2 Pay Attention to Version Numbers

Check the pom.xml for the project's GAV (groupId, artifactId, version) as it will be used when generating the scaffold.

3.2.3 Build the Scaffold

Method 1: In a terminal, run: mvn archetype:create-from-project Method 2: From the project directory, execute:

cd D:\spring-stagging

mvn archetype:create-from-project

After execution, the scaffold project is created, showing a structure like the following:

If the generated structure has mismatched artifactId and module prefixes, adjust them to be consistent.

3.2.4 Clean Up the Scaffold

Remove IDE files and unnecessary example code:

rm -rf .idea

find . -name ".iml" -type f -print -exec rm -rf {} \;

find . -name "xxxMain" -type f -print -exec rm -rf {} \;

Place the resulting scaffold (containing src and pom.xml) in a directory such as D:\spring-stagging-archetype.

3.2.5 Publish the Scaffold

Configure Maven’s distributionManagement and deploy the scaffold to the artifact repository. Failure to do so may result in errors like “Could not find artifact org.springframework.boot.demo:spring-boot-stage-demo-archetype:pom:0.0.1‑SNAPSHOT”.

xxx-central

libs-releases-local

http://artifactory.66.com/libs-releases-local

xxx-snapshots

libs-snapshot-local

http://artifactory.66.com/libs-snapshots-local

The GAV coordinates for the scaffold are:

org.springframework.boot.demo

spring-boot-stage-demo-archetype

0.0.1‑SNAPSHOT

maven-archetype

Upload the scaffold project to a Git repository for future updates and maintenance.

Using the Scaffold to Create New Projects

4.1 Configure the Scaffold’s GAV

4.2 Fill in the Target Project’s GAV

4.3 Configure Maven

4.4 Generate a New Project Using the New ArtifactId

Reference

[1] https://maven.apache.org/archetype/maven-archetype-plugin/