Eclipse Maven dependency jar grayed out, can't import classes from it - eclipse

Question

I'm helping a friend configure a maven project with m2eclipse for the first time. We're both pretty unfamiliar with it and are encountering an issue where even though a dependency jar is showing up with packages in it under "maven dependencies" in the Project directory, if we try to import anything from any of that jar's packages, it can't find the class.
I noticed that the jars that are having issues are gray and not as opaque as the rest of the jars that are working.
What's strange is if you hover of the class name in the import, it shows a brief description of the class (from the documentation in the jar!) but it won't let me import it. All the other maven dependencies can be imported fine. Any ideas? We can't seem to even find what the darker icon means.
Also, the pom.xml is dead simple:
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
4.0.0
<groupId>com.something.portal.test</groupId>
<artifactId>PortalFrontEndTests</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<name>PortalFrontEndTests</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- Selenium -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
<version>2.53.1</version>
</dependency>
<!-- TestNG -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.testng</groupId>
<artifactId>testng</artifactId>
<version>6.11</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
I'm not sure what I'm missing here

Answer 1

open your pom.xml file
check for the name of the grayed out jar file
change
<scope>test</scope>
to
<scope>compile</scope>

Answer 2

I found the issue. It was because I had the class in the source directory instead of the test directory and both of the maven dependencies had been marked as "Visible only to test"

Answer 3

I had the same problem when i used the <scope>test</scope> in the maven pom.
It seems as if the newer Eclipse/Java versions do have a new Attribute :
<classpathentry kind="src" output="target/test-classes" path="src/test/java/...">
<attributes>
<attribute name="test" value="true"/>
</attributes>
</classpathentry>
This should be enabled in the Java Build Path Settings:
Image showing "Containts test sources" option from build path menu
After enabling this i got rid of all the compiler errors.

Answer 4

check for your dependency scope in POM file
compile, provided, system and test these were the available test
test -> compile would change your dependencies from grey to white.
If your dependency is for test scope then that dependency is not available for normal use in application whereas compile scope sets that dependency in class path of your project.

Answer 5

I am not sure on the grayed out part. If this is the feature because it suggest that Testing class should be under /test rather /src.
However, solution to your problem is scope of plugin, change it to compile and you will be good to go.
i.e. replace test with compile:
<scope>test</scope>
<scope>compile</scope>
That's it. you will not get any error for import testing packages.

Answer 6

Just removing the Scope will work. I tried as the following:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
<artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
<version>5.8.0-M1</version>
</dependency>

Answer 7

I am also faced the same problem
set scope to compile or remove scope
open maven dependencies
right click on dependency and click download resources