3.0.0+ The project group that produced the dependency, e.g. org.apache.maven.

3.0.0+ The unique id for an artifact produced by the project group, e.g. maven-artifact.

3.0.0+ The version of the dependency, e.g. 3.2.1. In Maven 2, this can also be specified as a range of versions.

4.0.0+ The type of dependency, that will be mapped to a file extension, an optional classifier, and a few other attributes. Some examples are jar, war, ejb-client and test-jar: see default artifact handlers for a list. New types can be defined by extensions, so this is not a complete list.

4.0.0+ The classifier of the dependency. It is appended to the filename after the version. This allows:

• referring to attached artifact, for example sources and javadoc: see default artifact handlers for a list,
• distinguishing two artifacts that belong to the same POM but were built differently. For example, jdk14 and jdk15.

4.0.0+ The scope of the dependency - compile, runtime, test, system, and provided. Used to calculate the various classpaths used for compilation, testing, and so on. It also assists in determining which artifacts to include in a distribution of this project. For more information, see the dependency mechanism. The default scope is compile.

4.0.0+ FOR SYSTEM SCOPE ONLY. Note that use of this property is discouraged and may be replaced in later versions. This specifies the path on the filesystem for this dependency. Requires an absolute path for the value, not relative. Use a property that gives the machine specific absolute path, e.g. ${java.home}.

4.0.0+ Lists a set of artifacts that should be excluded from this dependency's artifact list when it comes to calculating transitive dependencies.

4.0.0+ Indicates the dependency is optional for use of this library. While the version of the dependency will be taken into account for dependency calculation if the library is used elsewhere, it will not be passed on transitively. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.