[m2e-users] Why does m2e offer bundle artifacts when the underlying POM

["David M. Karr" <davidmichaelkarr@xxxxxxxxx>]

For a while I've been struggling with an issue where I see the search 
facility in the "Add" dialog offering some artifacts that are "jar" 
artifacts, and some that are "bundle" artifacts.  I know the basic 
difference between them.  The funny thing is, I believe that these 
artifacts are all structured similarly, so I'm not sure why it thinks 
some are "bundle" artifacts and some are "jar".

I think I found a clue that might explain that last point.  I looked at 
the two pom artifacts (one m2e says is a "bundle", the other a "jar"), 
and the only significant difference is that the "bundle" artifact has a 
"packaging" property set to "bundle".  the other doesn't have a 
packaging property.  Ironically, the "jar" artifact's pom uses the 
"maven-bundle-plugin" (with extensions = true), but I guess that isn't 
enough for m2e to recognize it as a bundle.

The bigger problem is that m2e is offering these "bundle" artifacts into 
a pom that doesn't necessarily know what a bundle is.  After I store the 
dependency reference to the bundle artifact, the project fails to 
build.  If I manually edit the properties of the dependency, changing it 
to a "jar", it works fine.

I know understand that I have to add the "maven-bundle-plugin" reference 
to the pom for this to work, but the underlying question is, why does 
m2e offer bundle artifacts into a pom that doesn't know what bundle 
artifacts are?

I imagine the obvious answer is "because it doesn't know not to", or 
some variation of that.

Before I file a bug report, would it be a reasonable enhancement to 
expect the m2e search facility in the "Add" dialog to introspect the pom 
and determine whether bundles can be used in the pom in question, and if 
not, offer bundle artifacts as jar artifacts instead?