Generating JavaDoc with Eclipse or Maven

Generating JavaDocs is an integral part of every Java project and there are various options of generating the required documentation.

Option 1 :  Using Eclipse and JDK's JavaDoc tool.

This is the simplest option. If you are using Eclipse and have the path to the JDK (not JRE) set in the Eclipse > Windows Preferences > Installed JRE option set correctly (as shown in the screenshot below), Eclipse should be able to find the JavaDoc tool.

Set the path to your installed JDK

JavaDoc Tool in Eclipse

That's it. Clicking on the Javadoc option will bring up a wizard that will prompt you for the Destination folder for the generated JavaDocs. Apart from generating the JavaDocs, the tool will also create a stylesheet.css for the JavaDocs that can be edited if required.

Option 2 :  Using Maven and the JavaDoc plugin.

Add the plugin definition to your pom.xml

               
                
                     ...........
                  
                  org.apache.maven.plugins
                  maven-javadoc-plugin
                  2.9
                  
                    C:/javadoc/stylesheet.css
                     public
                  
                  
                
                  

In the snippet above, I have added the plugin definition and configuration to the build section. It can also be repeated in the section. This will allow me to run the Javadoc generation goal during the build cycle. I have also specified a path to a stylesheet file that will define the look and feel of the JavaDoc generated.

To generate the JavaDoc using Maven, use mvn javadoc:javadoc

More details on this option is available here.