Maven is a project management and project build tool that is based on project object model(POM). It eliminates N number of steps in the build process and makes one-step process to do a build. ​ Here is the pictorial representation of how maven works :

Maven provides project information like log document, dependency list, unit test reports and so on. JARs can be easily added using maven dependencies from maven repositories. ​ POM Files Project Object Model(POM) files are in xml format that contains information related to project and configuration such as dependencies,source directory, plugin, goals and so on. Maven reads POM to accomplish its configuration and operations. ​ Build Life Cycles, Phases, Goals Build life cycle is a set of sequential build phases and each build phase is a sequential set of goals. Maven command is the name of a build cycle. ​ Build Profiles It is a set of configuration values that allows to build project using different configurations. ​ Build Plugins They are used to perform a specific goal which can de added in POM file. ​ Dependencies These are the elements of POM file that are used to add external java libraries in the project. ​ Maven Repositories These are directories of packaged JAR files with some metadata.This metadata enables maven to download dependencies recursively until all dependencies are downloaded and put into your local machine. ​ Maven has three kinds of repository :

> Local Repository

> Central Repository

> Remote Repository

​ Maven searches for dependencies in these repositories.First it searches in Local Repository then Central Repository then Remote Repository if Remote Repository is specified in the POM. ​ Local Repository It is a directory on the developer's machine that contains all the downloaded dependencies. Maven only needs to download the dependencies once, even if multiple projects depend on them. By default .m2 folder is a Local repository. ​ Central Repository Maven community has Central Repository. If any dependency is required for the project but not found in Local Repository then maven downloads them from Central Repository i.e. 'https://mvnrepository.com/' . ​ Remote Repository This repository is on web server from which maven can download dependencies and often used for hosting projects internal to the organization. ​ ​ ​ ​ Refer next page Installation Of Maven In Eclipse