Code required to read Maven WAR artifact version in java.

pom.xml

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.3</version>
  <configuration>
    <archive>
      <manifest>
        <addDefaultImplementationEntries>true</addDefaultImplementationEntries>
        <addDefaultSpecificationEntries>true</addDefaultSpecificationEntries>
      </manifest>
    </archive>
  <archiveClasses>true</archiveClasses>
</plugin>

Version.java

public final class Version {

	private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Version.class);

	private static String appVersion;

	private Version() {
	}

	public static String getVersionString() {
		String versionString = "no version info";

		try {
			versionString = String.format("Version %s", getApplicationVersion());
		} catch (final Exception e) {
			logger.error("Error fetching version: " + e);
		}
		return versionString;
	}

	private static String getApplicationVersion() {
		if (appVersion == null) {
			throw new IllegalStateException("No application Version set");
		}
		return appVersion;
	}

	public static void setVersionFromServletContext(final ServletContext servletContext) {
		final String name = "/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF";
		final Properties props = new Properties();
		try {
			props.load(servletContext.getResourceAsStream(name));
			setApplicationVersion((String) props.get("Implementation-Version"));
		} catch (final IOException e) {
			logger.error("Error fetching version: " + e);
		}

	}

	private static void setApplicationVersion(final String string) {
		appVersion = string;
	}
}