diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0fcdcb1..2d31246 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -106,6 +106,30 @@
 					</configuration>
 				</plugin>
 
+				<!-- common configuration for the assembly plugin -->
+				<plugin>
+					<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
+					<version>2.6</version>
+					<dependencies>
+						<dependency>
+							<groupId>org.gcube.tools</groupId>
+							<artifactId>shared-assemblies</artifactId>
+							<version>1.0.0</version>
+						</dependency>
+					</dependencies>
+					<executions>	  
+						<!-- generation of the source package -->
+					    <execution>
+					      <id>make-source-package</id>
+					      <configuration combine.self="override">
+					        <descriptorRefs>
+					          <descriptorRef>gcube-source-package</descriptorRef>
+					        </descriptorRefs>
+					      </configuration>
+					    </execution>
+			        </executions>
+				</plugin>				
+
 			</plugins>
 		</pluginManagement>
 
@@ -174,6 +198,9 @@
 	</build>
 	
 	<properties>
+		<!-- default value for the distro directory -->
+		<distroDirectory>distro</distroDirectory>
+	
 		<java_version>1.7</java_version>
 		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
 		<maven.version>3.0.0</maven.version>
@@ -183,7 +210,7 @@
 		
 		<!-- following properties contains common information on gCube that are used for filtering resources like README, LICENSE, ... -->
 
-		<gcube.wikiRoot>https://wiki.gcube-system.org/gcube/index.php/</gcube.wikiRoot>		
+		<gcube.wikiRoot>https://wiki.gcube-system.org/gcube/index.php/</gcube.wikiRoot>
 		<maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyy-MM-dd</maven.build.timestamp.format>
 		<buildDate>${maven.build.timestamp}</buildDate>
 		<gcube.issueTracking>https://support.d4science.org/projects/gcube/</gcube.issueTracking>