In that case, I think it might pay off to have a look at Maven. There is a certain learning curve (as always...) but using Maven, dependency management is a lot easier. You just list your 8 or 10 direct dependencies, and the 128 indirect dependencies get pulled in by Maven automatically.
Moreover, Maven will even download them for you automatically. Including sources if you wish (handy for debugging). You can start a project virtually from scratch just with a dependency shopping list in your POM (the Maven "Makefile").
If you work with Eclipse, you can try the m2eclipse plugin together with the m2eclipse WTP integration (add-on for web projects). This will give you a form-based POM editor and dependency diagrams or tree views.
E.g. I currently have a web app with 6 subprojects (JARs) of my own and about 40 third-party dependencies. Using Maven, m2eclipse and the Glassfish plugin for Eclipse, I get quick edit-deploy-test cycles in Eclipse and an automatic batch build at the same time.
Regards,
Harald
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