Originally posted by: JorisK

Would it be possible to include cplex.jar in the central maven repository? That way, projects build on top of cplex can be properly compiled through maven. Obviously, anyone who wants to execute the compiled project must still possess a legitimate copy of cplex, including the runtime libraries. Currently, to build a cplex project through maven, one has to first execute the following steps: https://notesblogblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/setting-up-cplex-for-academics-with-eclipse-on-linux/

These steps are a bit cumbersome, especially since everyone who needs to compile the code must follow these steps. These steps could be easily avoided if cplex.jar is in the central maven repository.

Do I miss anything or would the only thing you save by this be the call to mvn install?

Or is your point that you want to be able to compile CPLEX Java applications (without running them) even without having CPLEX installed?

Originally posted by: JorisK

Exactly your 2nd point. It turns out to be challenging to distribute code where Cplex is used as an alternative solver choice, or where Cplex is used in some part of the application. In these cases, the user may not have direct access to Cplex (or may not have a direct need to use cplex immediately). Being able to compile the code without disabling all Cplex-dependent code would be very nice. Alternatively, would there be a way to get permission to buddle cplex.jar as an external library in an (open-source) application?

Can you please file a request for enhancement at  http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe.

Please describe your use case (and potential other use cases) as detailed as possible.

Since this is not something that is going to happen fast, here are ideas how you can work around this problem for now:

1. Add one additional layer of indirection. That is, create in your project some code that calls the CPLEX methods. Do not deliver this code as source code only but also as .jar. This way you anybody can compile your project as long as they do not want to change anything in that wrapper code (which would require recompiling the .jar which in turn requires cplex.jar to be present).

2. Create our own jar with all the same classes and methods. Just have every method throw an exception when called.

3. Move the CPLEX-depdendent stuff into a separate project and prepare your main project so that it can be built without the CPLEX-related project.