Live and Learn – ant

Resources  Ant User Manual  Skip the book, most of the material is right here  Apache Ant 101 – DeveloperWorks ibm.com/developerworks/edu/j-dw-java- apant-i.html ibm.com/developerworks/edu/j-dw-java- apant-i.html  Totally righteous tutorial

Questions from Live and Learn 1.What is the basic structure of an Ant file? 2.What's required and what's optional? 3.What is the difference between build.xml and build.properties? 4.What is the advantages/disadvantages of defining properties in build.properties instead of build.xml? 5.How do I create and destroy directories? 6.How do I define projects to run using Ant? 7.Other hints and suggestions from an expert? 8.How to do junit tasks? 9.How to do task dependencies (don't compile unless fetch got stuff)

Basic structure  Entities: Project Targets Tasks Types  Project contains tasks, which contain targets and types  Implicit target contains all “top-level” targets and types is executed each time ant is invoked, even for -projecthelp

Minimal file

Sample file (unreadable) A simple Java project

Sample file (part 1) A simple Java project

Sample file (part 2) <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-${DSTAMP}.jar" basedir="${buildDir}"> <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-src-${DSTAMP}.jar“ basedir="${srcDir}"/>

Properties  Write-once!  From command line: ant -D key=value  Built-in: basedir, ant.file, ant.version, ant.project.name, ant.java.version  Java System properties /System.html#getProperties() /System.html#getProperties()  From the Property task

Property task  explicitly stated:  pulled from a file: Java-style properties file syntax.  pulled from the environment:  also URL or Resource

Example from ExpertVoices <fail unless="env.EV_CONFIG" message="Environment variable 'EV_CONFIG' is not set"/> <property name="config_property_file“ location="properties/${env.EV_CONFIG}.build.properties"/> <available file="${config_property_file}" type="file“ property="config_property_file_present"/> <fail unless="config_property_file_present“ message="Property file '${config_property_file}' missing"/> <property name="common_property_file“ location="properties/_common.build.properties"/>

File Set  Inline:  By reference:

Pattern Set  Inline or by reference

Path-like structures -simple

Path-like structures - complex

Other types  Selectors Selectors are a mechanism whereby the files that make up a fileset can be selected based on criteria other than filename.  Filtersets <copy file="${build.dir}/version.txt" toFile="${dist.dir}/version.txt">

Optional tasks  Require libraries that are not supplied with Ant Put them in Ant’s lib directory, or add to the system classpath

Optional tasks - gotchas  from  Note: You must have junit.jar and the class files for the task in the same classpath. You can do one of: Put both junit.jar and the optional tasks jar file in ANT_HOME/lib. Do not put either in ANT_HOME/lib, and instead include their locations in your CLASSPATH environment variable. Do neither of the above, and instead, specify their locations using a element in the build file. See the FAQ for details.the FAQ

If – Then – Else THEN BODY EXECUTED ELSE BODY EXECUTED

“Subroutines” with parameters <param name="extensions_dir" value="${third_party_themes_dir}"/> <param name="destination_dir“ value="${build_wpmu_themes_dir}"/>

Loops <foreach target="unzip_extension" param="zip_file" inheritall="Yes">