Category: Ant

Ant – Using Token Filter ”; Previous Next Ant Filter allows to set a token filter for current project. A token is seperated by @ symbol and can be read using properties file as well. Steps Step 1 − Define a token using @@. This is a sample text written in @year@. Step 2 − Set the filter. <filter token=”year” value=”2021″/> Step 3 − Use the filter. All tasks will replace the occurence of @year@ with 2021. <copy todir=”${dest.dir}” filtering=”true”> <fileset dir=”${src.dir}”/> </copy> Filter Task Properties Following are the key attributes − Sr.No Attribute & Description 1 token the token string without the separator chars (@) 2 value the string that should be put to replace the token when the file is copied. 3 filtersfile The file from which the filters must be read. This file must be a formatted as a property file. Either token and value to be provided or filtersfile to Filter task to work properly. Example Create a src folder with text1.txt file with following contents − This is a sample text written in @year@. Create build.xml with the following content − <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”sample” basedir=”.” default=”copy”> <property name=”src.dir” value=”src”/> <property name=”dest.dir” value=”build”/> <target name=”copy”> <filter token=”year” value=”2021″/> <copy todir=”${dest.dir}” filtering=”true”> <fileset dir=”${src.dir}”/> </copy> </target> </project> Output Running Ant on the above build file produces the following output − F:tutorialspointant>ant Buildfile: F:tutorialspointantbuild.xml copy: [copy] Copying 1 file to F:tutorialspointantbuild BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 1 second F:tutorialspointant> Verify the content of copied file to build folder. This is a sample text written in 2021. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Property Files ”; Previous Next Setting properties directly in the build file is fine, if you are working with a handful of properties. However, for a large project, it makes sense to store the properties in a separate property file. Benefits Storing the properties in a separate file offers the following benefits − It allows you to reuse the same build file, with different property settings for different execution environment. For example, build properties file can be maintained separately for DEV, TEST, and PROD environments. It is useful, when you do not know the values for a property (in a particular environment) up-front. This allows you to perform the build in other environments, where the property value is known. There is no hard and fast rule, but typically the property file is named as build.properties and is placed along-side the build.xml file. You could create multiple build properties files based on the deployment environments – such as build.properties.dev and build.properties.test. The contents of the build property file are similar to the normal java property file. They contain one property per line. Each property is represented by a name and a value pair. The name and value pairs are separated by an equals (=) sign. It is highly recommended that the properties are annotated with proper comments. Comments are listed using the hash (#) character. The following example shows a build.xml file and its associated build.properties file − build.xml Given below is an example for build.xml file. <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”Hello World Project” default=”info”> <property file=”build.properties”/> <target name=”info”> <echo>Apache Ant version is ${ant.version} – You are at ${sitename} </echo> </target> </project> build.properties An example for build.properties file is mentioned below − # The Site Name sitename=www.tutorialspoint.com buildversion=3.3.2 In the above example, sitename is a custom property which is mapped to the website name. You can declare any number of custom properties in this fashion. Another custom property listed in the above example is the buildversion, which, in this instance, refers to the version of the build. In addition to the above, Ant comes with a number of predefined build properties, which are listed in the previous section, but is given below once again for your reference. Sr.No Properties & Description 1 ant.file The full location of the build file. 2 ant.version The version of the Apache Ant installation. 3 basedir The basedir of the build, as specified in the basedir attribute of the project element. 4 ant.java.version The version of the JDK that is used by Ant. 5 ant.project.name The name of the project, as specified in the name attribute of the project element. 6 ant.project.default-target The default target of the current project. 7 ant.project.invoked-targets Comma separated list of the targets that were invoked in the current project. 8 ant.core.lib The full location of the Ant jar file. 9 ant.home The home directory of Ant installation. 10 ant.library.dir The home directory for Ant library files – typically ANT_HOME/lib folder. The example presented in this chapter uses the ant.version built-in property. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Executing Java code ”; Previous Next You can use Ant to execute the Java code. In the following example, the java class takes in an argument (administrator”s email address) and send out an email. public class NotifyAdministrator { public static void main(String[] args) { String email = args[0]; notifyAdministratorviaEmail(email); System.out.println(“Administrator “+email+” has been notified”); } public static void notifyAdministratorviaEmail(String email { //…… } } Here is a simple build that executes this java class. <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”sample” basedir=”.” default=”notify”> <target name=”notify”> <java fork=”true” failonerror=”yes” classname=”NotifyAdministrator”> <arg line=”[email protected]”/> </java> </target> </project> When the build is executed, it produces the following outcome − C:>ant Buildfile: C:build.xml notify: [java] Administrator [email protected] has been notified BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 1 second In this example, the java code does a simple thing which is, to send an email. We could have used the built in the Ant task to do that. However, now that you have got the idea, you can extend your build file to call the java code that performs complicated things. For example: encrypts your source code. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Eclipse Integration ”; Previous Next If you have downloaded and installed Eclipse already, you have very little to do to get started. Eclipse comes pre bundled with the Ant plugin, ready to use. Follow the simple steps, to integrate Ant into Eclipse. Make sure that the build.xml is a part of your java project, and does not reside at a location that is external to the project. Enable Ant View by following Window → Show View → Other → Ant → Ant. Open Project Explorer, drag the build.xml into the Ant View. Your Ant view looks similar to the one given below − Clicking on the targets, build / clean / usage will run Ant with the target. Clicking “fax” will execute the default target – usage. The Ant Eclipse plugin also comes with a good editor for editing build.xml files. The editor is aware of the build.xml schema and can assist you with code completion. To use the Ant editor, right click your build.xml (from the Project Explorer) and select Open with > Ant Editor. The Ant editor should look something similar to− The Ant editor lists the targets on the right hand side. The target list serves as a bookmark that allows you to jump straight into editing a particular target. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Deploying Applications ”; Previous Next In the previous chapter, we have learnt how to package an application and deploy it to a folder. In this chapter, we are going to deploy the web application directly to the application server deploy folder and then, we are going to add a few Ant targets to start and stop the services. Let us continue with the Hello World fax web application. This is a continuation of the previous chapter; the new components are highlighted in bold. build.properties The file for build.properties is given below − # Ant properties for building the springapp appserver.home=c:\install\apache-tomcat-7.0.19 # for Tomcat 5 use $appserver.home}/server/lib # for Tomcat 6 use $appserver.home}/lib appserver.lib=${appserver.home}/lib deploy.path=${appserver.home}/webapps tomcat.manager.url=https://www.tutorialspoint.com:8080/manager tomcat.manager.username=tutorialspoint tomcat.manager.password=secret build.xml The file for build.xml is as follows − <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”fax” basedir=”.” default=”usage”> <property file=”build.properties”/> <property name=”src.dir” value=”src”/> <property name=”web.dir” value=”war”/> <property name=”javadoc.dir” value=”doc”/> <property name=”build.dir” value=”${web.dir}/WEB-INF/classes”/> <property name=”name” value=”fax”/> <path id=”master-classpath”> <fileset dir=”${web.dir}/WEB-INF/lib”> <include name=”*.jar”/> </fileset> <pathelement path=”${build.dir}”/> </path> <target name=”javadoc”> <javadoc packagenames=”faxapp.*” sourcepath=”${src.dir}” destdir=”doc” version=”true” windowtitle=”Fax Application”> <doctitle><![CDATA[<h1>= Fax Application=</h1>]]></doctitle> <bottom><![CDATA[Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved.]]></bottom> <group title=”util packages” packages=”faxapp.util.*”/> <group title=”web packages” packages=”faxapp.web.*”/> <group title=”data packages” packages=”faxapp.entity.*:faxapp.dao.*”/> </javadoc> </target> <target name=”usage”> <echo message=””/> <echo message=”${name} build file”/> <echo message=”———————————–“/> <echo message=””/> <echo message=”Available targets are:”/> <echo message=””/> <echo message=”deploy –> Deploy application as directory”/> <echo message=”deploywar –> Deploy application as a WAR file”/> <echo message=””/> </target> <target name=”build” description=”Compile main source tree java files”> <mkdir dir=”${build.dir}”/> <javac destdir=”${build.dir}” source=”1.5″ target=”1.5″ debug=”true” deprecation=”false” optimize=”false” failonerror=”true”> <src path=”${src.dir}”/> <classpath refid=”master-classpath”/> </javac> </target> <target name=”deploy” depends=”build” description=”Deploy application”> <copy todir=”${deploy.path}/${name}” preservelastmodified=”true”> <fileset dir=”${web.dir}”> <include name=”**/*.*”/> </fileset> </copy> </target> <target name=”deploywar” depends=”build” description=”Deploy application as a WAR file”> <war destfile=”${name}.war” webxml=”${web.dir}/WEB-INF/web.xml”> <fileset dir=”${web.dir}”> <include name=”**/*.*”/> </fileset> </war> <copy todir=”${deploy.path}” preservelastmodified=”true”> <fileset dir=”.”> <include name=”*.war”/> </fileset> </copy> </target> <target name=”clean” description=”Clean output directories”> <delete> <fileset dir=”${build.dir}”> <include name=”**/*.class”/> </fileset> </delete> </target> <!– ============================================================ –> <!– Tomcat tasks –> <!– ============================================================ –> <path id=”catalina-ant-classpath”> <!– We need the Catalina jars for Tomcat –> <!– * for other app servers – check the docs –> <fileset dir=”${appserver.lib}”> <include name=”catalina-ant.jar”/> </fileset> </path> <taskdef name=”install” classname=”org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask”> <classpath refid=”catalina-ant-classpath”/> </taskdef> <taskdef name=”reload” classname=”org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask”> <classpath refid=”catalina-ant-classpath”/> </taskdef> <taskdef name=”list” classname=”org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask”> <classpath refid=”catalina-ant-classpath”/> </taskdef> <taskdef name=”start” classname=”org.apache.catalina.ant.StartTask”> <classpath refid=”catalina-ant-classpath”/> </taskdef> <taskdef name=”stop” classname=”org.apache.catalina.ant.StopTask”> <classpath refid=”catalina-ant-classpath”/> </taskdef> <target name=”reload” description=”Reload application in Tomcat”> <reload url=”${tomcat.manager.url}”username=”${tomcat.manager.username}” password=”${tomcat.manager.password}” path=”/${name}”/> </target> </project> In this example, we have used Tomcat as our application server. First, in the build properties file, we have defined some additional properties which are explained below − The appserver.home points to the installation path to the Tomcat application server. The appserver.lib points to the library files in the Tomcat installation folder. The deploy.path variable now points to the webapp folder in Tomcat. Applications in Tomcat can be stopped and started using the Tomcat manager application. The URL for the manager application, username and password are also specified in the build.properties file. Next, we declare a new CLASSPATH that contains the catalina-ant.jar. This jar file is required to execute Tomcat tasks through Apache Ant. Tasks The catalina-ant.jar provides the following tasks − Sr.No Properties & Description 1 InstallTask Installs a web application. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask 2 ReloadTask Reload a web application. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask 3 ListTask Lists all web applications. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask 4 StartTask1 Starts a web application. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.StartTask 5 StopTask Stops a web application. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.StopTask 6 ReloadTask Reloads a web application without stopping. Class Name: org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask The reload task requires the additional parameters which are as follows − URL to the manager application. Username to restart the web application. Password to restart the web application. Name of the web application to be restarted. Let us issue the deploy-war command to copy the webapp to the Tomcat webapps folder and then, let us reload the Fax Web application. The following outcome is the result of running the Ant file − C:>ant deploy-war Buildfile: C:build.xml BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 6.3 seconds C:>ant reload Buildfile: C:build.xml BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 3.1 seconds Once the above task is run, the web application is deployed and the web application is reloaded. 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Ant – Data Types ”; Previous Next Ant provides a number of predefined data types. Do not confuse the term “data types” with those that are available in the programming language. Instead, consider them as a set of services that are built into the product already. Data Types in Ant The following data types are provided by Apache Ant. Fileset The fileset data type represents a collection of files. It is used as a filter to include or exclude files that match a particular pattern. For example, refer the following code. Here, the src attribute points to the source folder of the project. <fileset dir=”${src}” casesensitive=”yes”> <include name=”**/*.java”/> <exclude name=”**/*Stub*”/> </fileset> The fileset selects all .java files in the source folder except those contain the word ”Stub”.The case-sensitive filter is applied to the fileset, which means a file with the name Samplestub.java will not be excluded from the fileset. Pattern set A pattern set is a pattern that allows to filter files or folders easily based on certain patterns. The patterns can be created using the following meta characters − ? – Matches one character only. – Matches zero or many characters. ** – Matches zero or many directories recursively. The following example depicts the usage of a pattern set. <patternset id=”java.files.without.stubs”> <include name=”src/**/*.java”/> <exclude name=”src/**/*Stub*”/> </patternset> The patternset can then be reused with a fileset as follows − <fileset dir=”${src}” casesensitive=”yes”> <patternset refid=”java.files.without.stubs”/> </fileset> File list The filelist data type is similar to the file set except the following differences − It contains explicitly named lists of files and it does not support wild cards. This data type can be applied for existing or non-existing files. Let us see the following example of the filelist data type. Here, the attribute webapp.src.folder points to the web application source folder of the project. <filelist id=”config.files” dir=”${webapp.src.folder}”> <file name=”applicationConfig.xml”/> <file name=”faces-config.xml”/> <file name=”web.xml”/> <file name=”portlet.xml”/> </filelist> Filter set By using a filterset data type along with the copy task, you can replace certain text in all the files that matches the pattern with a replacement value. A common example is to append the version number to the release notes file, as shown in the following code. <copy todir=”${output.dir}”> <fileset dir=”${releasenotes.dir}” includes=”**/*.txt”/> <filterset> <filter token=”VERSION” value=”${current.version}”/> </filterset> </copy> In the above mentioned code − The attribute output.dir points to the output folder of the project. The attribute releasenotes.dir points to the release notes folder of the project. The attribute current.version points to the current version folder of the project. The copy task, as the name suggests, is used to copy files from one location to another. Path The path data type is commonly used to represent a class-path. Entries in the path are separated using semicolons or colons. However, these characters are replaced at the runtime by the executing system”s path separator character. The classpath is set to the list of jar files and classes in the project, as shown in the example below. <path id=”build.classpath.jar”> <pathelement path=”${env.J2EE_HOME}/${j2ee.jar}”/> <fileset dir=”lib”> <include name=”**/*.jar”/> </fileset> </path> In the code given above − The attribute env.J2EE_HOME points to the environment variable J2EE_HOME. The attribute j2ee.jar points to the name of the J2EE jar file in the J2EE base folder. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Creating JAR files ”; Previous Next The next logical step after compiling your java source files, is to build the java archive, i.e., the Java Archive (JAR) file. Creating JAR files with Ant is quite easy with the jar task. Attributes The commonly used attributes of the jar task are as follows − Sr.No Attributes & Description 1 basedir The base directory for the output JAR file. By default, this is set to the base directory of the project. 2 compress Advises Ant to compress the file as it creates the JAR file. 3 keepcompression While the compress attribute is applicable to the individual files, the keepcompression attribute does the same thing, but it applies to the entire archive. 4 destfile The name of the output JAR file. 5 duplicate Advises Ant on what to do when duplicate files are found. You could add, preserve, or fail the duplicate files. 6 excludes Advises Ant to not include these comma separated list of files in the package. 7 excludesfile Same as above, except the exclude files are specified using a pattern. 8 inlcudes Inverse of excludes. 9 includesfile Inverse of excludesfile. 10 update Advises Ant to overwrite files in the already built JAR file. Continuing our Hello World Fax Application project, let us add a new target to produce the jar files. But before that, let us consider the jar task given below. <jar destfile=”${web.dir}/lib/util.jar” basedir=”${build.dir}/classes” includes=”faxapp/util/**” excludes=”**/Test.class” /> Here, the web.dir property points to the path of the web source files. In our case, this is where the util.jar will be placed. The build.dir property in this example, points to the build folder, where the class files for the util.jar can be found. In this example, we create a jar file called util.jar using the classes from the faxapp.util.* package. However, we are excluding the classes that end with the name Test. The output jar file will be placed in the web application lib folder. If we want to make the util.jar an executable jar file, we need to add the manifest with the Main-Class meta attribute. Therefore, the above example will be updated as follows − <jar destfile=”${web.dir}/lib/util.jar” basedir=”${build.dir}/classes” includes=”faxapp/util/**” excludes=”**/Test.class” class=”ts” <manifest class=”ts” <attribute name=”Main-Class” value=”com.tutorialspoint.util.FaxUtil”/> </manifest class=”ts” </jar class=”ts” To execute the jar task, wrap it inside a target, most commonly, the build or package target, and execute them. <target name=”build-jar” class=”ts” <jar destfile=”${web.dir}/lib/util.jar” basedir=”${build.dir}/classes” includes=”faxapp/util/**” excludes=”**/Test.class” class=”ts” <manifest class=”ts” <attribute name=”Main-Class” value=”com.tutorialspoint.util.FaxUtil”/> </manifest class=”ts” </jar class=”ts” </target class=”ts” Running Ant on this file creates the util.jar file for us. The following outcome is the result of running the Ant file − C: class=”ts”ant build-jar Buildfile: C:build.xml BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 1.3 seconds The util.jar file is now placed in the output folder. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Introduction ”; Previous Next ANT stands for Another Neat Tool. It is a Java-based build tool from computer software development company Apache. Before going into the details of Apache Ant, let us first understand why we need a build tool. Need for a Build Tool On an average, a developer spends a substantial amount of time doing mundane tasks like build and deployment that include − Compiling the code Packaging the binaries Deploying the binaries to the test server Testing the changes Copying the code from one location to another To automate and simplify the above tasks, Apache Ant is useful. It is an Operating System build and deployment tool that can be executed from the command line. History of Apache Ant Ant was created by software developer James Duncan Davidson who is also the original creator of webserver application Tomcat. Ant was originally used to build Tomcat, and was bundled as a part of Tomcat distribution. It was born out of the problems and complexities associated with the Apache Make tool. It was promoted as an independent project in Apache in the year 2000. The latest version of Apache Ant as on October 2021 is 1.10.12. Features of Apache Ant The features of Apache Ant are listed below − It is the most complete Java build and deployment tool available. It is platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties, such as file separators. It can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using ”touch” command. Ant scripts are written using plain XML. If you are already familiar with XML, you can learn Ant pretty quickly. Ant is good at automating complicated repetitive tasks. Ant comes with a big list of predefined tasks. Ant provides an interface to develop custom tasks. Ant can be easily invoked from the command line and it can integrate with free and commercial IDEs. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Property Task ”; Previous Next Ant build files are written in XML, which does not allow declaring variables as you do in your favorite programming language. However, as you may have imagined, it would be useful if Ant allowed declaring variables such as project name, project source directory, etc. Ant uses the property element which allows you to specify the properties. This allows the properties to be changed from one build to another or from one environment to another. Ant Properties By default, Ant provides the following pre-defined properties that can be used in the build file − Sr.No Properties & Description 1 ant.file The full location of the build file. 2 ant.version The version of the Apache Ant installation. 3 basedir The basedir of the build, as specified in the basedir attribute of the project element. 4 ant.java.version The version of the JDK that is used by Ant. 5 ant.project.name The name of the project, as specified in the name attribute of the project element. 6 ant.project.default-target The default target of the current project. 7 ant.project.invoked-targets Comma separated list of the targets that were invoked in the current project. 8 ant.core.lib The full location of the Ant jar file. 9 ant.home The home directory of Ant installation. 10 ant.library.dir The home directory for Ant library files – typically ANT_HOME/lib folder. Ant also makes the system properties (Example: file.separator) available to the build file. In addition to the above, the user can define additional properties using the property element. The following example shows how to define a property called sitename − <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”Hello World Project” default=”info”> <property name=”sitename” value=”www.tutorialspoint.com”/> <target name=”info”> <echo>Apache Ant version is ${ant.version} – You are at ${sitename} </echo> </target> </project> Output Running Ant on the above build file produces the following output − C:>ant Buildfile: C:build.xml info: [echo] Apache Ant version is Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.12 compiled on October 13 2021 – You are at www.tutorialspoint.com BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 0 seconds C:> Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Ant – Build Files ”; Previous Next Typically, Ant”s build file, called build.xml should reside in the base directory of the project. However, there is no restriction on the file name or its location. You are free to use other file names or save the build file in some other location. For this exercise, create a file called build.xml anywhere in your computer with the following contents − <?xml version=”1.0″?> <project name=”Hello World Project” default=”info”> <target name=”info”> <echo>Hello World – Welcome to Apache Ant!</echo> </target> </project> Note that there should be no blank line(s) or whitespace(s) before the xml declaration. If you allow them, the following error message occurs while executing the ant build − The processing instruction target matching “[xX][mM][lL]” is not allowed. All build files require the project element and at least one target element. The XML element project has three attributes which are as follows − Sr.No Attributes & Description 1 name The Name of the project. (Optional) 2 default The default target for the build script. A project may contain any number of targets. This attribute specifies which target should be considered as the default. (Mandatory) 3 basedir The base directory (or) the root folder for the project. (Optional) A target is a collection of tasks that you want to run as one unit. In our example, we have a simple target to provide an informational message to the user. Targets can have dependencies on other targets. For example, a deploy target may have a dependency on the package target, the package target may have a dependency on the compile target and so forth. Dependencies are denoted using the depends attribute. For example − <target name=”deploy” depends=”package”> …. </target> <target name=”package” depends=”clean,compile”> …. </target> <target name=”clean” > …. </target> <target name=”compile” > …. </target> The target element has the following attributes − Sr.No Attributes & Description 1 name The name of the target (Required) 2 depends Comma separated list of all targets that this target depends on. (Optional) 3 description A short description of the target. (optional) 4 if Allows the execution of a target based on the trueness of a conditional attribute. (optional) 5 unless Adds the target to the dependency list of the specified Extension Point. An Extension Point is similar to a target, but it does not have any tasks. (Optional) The echo task in the above example is a trivial task that prints a message. In our example,it prints the message Hello World. To run the ant build file, open up command prompt and navigate to the folder, where the build.xml resides, and then type ant info. You could also type ant instead. Both will work,because info is the default target in the build file. You should see the following output − C:>ant Buildfile: C:build.xml info: [echo] Hello World – Welcome to Apache Ant! BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 0 seconds C:> Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;