 <p>You can have a <code>maven-war-plugin</code> and configure to include empty folders.</p> <pre><code>&lt;plugin&gt; &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-war-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt; &lt;version&gt;2.4&lt;/version&gt; &lt;configuration&gt; &lt;includeEmptyDirectories&gt;true&lt;/includeEmptyDirectories&gt; &lt;/configuration&gt; &lt;/plugin&gt; </code></pre>