Ant and Eclipse

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What is Ant?

A simple definition states that Ant is a

Java-based build tool.


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Of course that definition may just raise the

question in your mind "What is a buildtool?".

To answer that question, consider what is

required to build a software system.


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A typical Build Process

After writing the code, following tasks are accomplished

before delivering a finished product:

compiling, running programs (e.g. for testing purposes)documenting, packaging, and

deploying the software you develop. Performing these steps by hand is tedious, repetitious, and

error-prone.

This is a task begging to be automated.


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Eclipse and Ant

We know that Eclipse is a good IDE forJavaprojects

- user friendly tool forwriting and compilingJava code the most obvious part of softwaredevelopment

It also has JUnit as a plug-in

- a standard tool forunit testing

Eclipse has Ant as one more plug-in


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Eclipse and Ant

To see how Ant works from inside ofEclipse we shouldbe able to

create the build directorystructure

separate thesource and build directories either in a new project, or in an existing project

import an existing project

either as an Eclipse originated project

or as an independent Ant originated project(not sotrivial)

create and edit an Ant build XML file

use default Anteditor

run Ant from inside ofEclipse


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Creating the build directory structure The first step in formalizing the build process is to clearly

separate files as

source files,

other resources,

temporary files (compiled files), and

deliverables (JAR, etc).

How to do this in Eclipse? Note that in Eclipse this is more than just creating new

directories.


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Separating the source and build

directories in a project Eclipse, by default, creates one and the same directory

path, according to thepackage, for

source and

compiled Java classes.

That is, compiled classes were in thesame place assource code:

seeHello project in Navigator view

But you know that build process (in Ant) requires to makeclear separation between

source files and

generated files.


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directories in a new project If you know from the beginning ofcreating a project, say,Proj, in Eclipse that you need a formal Ant build processthen, when creating a new project, you should do the

following: after choosing

File>New>Project>Java Project>Next, and

entering the name of a project Proj, insteadof accepting of defaults and clicking Finish

immediately after entering the project name,

you should clickNext to move to another dialog box


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directories in a new projectthen choosing Source tab

lets you to create the new source folder name (say,

src orsource)

Click on Create a new source (sub)folderof

the Proj folder:

Insert folder name src

ClickFinish

ClickFinish


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directories in a new project

We will get two subdirectoriesProj\srcProj\bin

bin is default in Eclipse forcompiledclasses

(seebin in Navigatorview)


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Separating the source and build directories in an

existing project

For already existing project Hellosuch aseparation in Package Explorer View is easilydescribed in general terms as follows:

rightclickon the project name Hello

create a newsource folder src forHello by choose

New->SourceFolder

move your source code into it (just drag-and-drop).

Eclipsetakes care of creating the new separate outputfolder (bin) and itssubdirectories for compiled classes.

In addition, when you build with Eclipse, itputs all theclass files in the right subdirectories.


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Separating the source and build directories in an existing

project

In more detail:

InJavaperspective,

right-click on the existingproject name Hello,

select New->SourceFolder,

enter src as the foldername.

Click Finish,

On the question concerningremoving all generatedresources (i.e., compiled

Java classes), click Yes.


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Separating the source and build directories in an existing

project

In the Package Explorerview,

Drag-and-drop org folder(with its subfolders, etc.)onto the src folder.

In the Navigator view (of theResource Perspective) wewill get the following picturewith separatedHelloWorld.java and

HelloWorld.class.

In the Package Explorerview(of theJava Perspective)

we will not see thecompiled class,

but we will see the


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Separating the source and build directories in an

existing project

We can additionally,create folders Hello\dist\lib

Hello\dist\doc

for distributable files like

HelloWorld.jar

and documentation.


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Creating a simple Ant example ofbuild.xmlThen type in, for example, the following:

The Anteditor provides some basic conveniences, such as code-completion feature (by pressing Ctrl-Space).

Outside of a tag, it shows you available tags for sub elements;

Inside of a tag, it shows you the allowed attributes for that tag. It provides

syntax highlighting and an outline view.


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Running Ant inside of Eclipse

To runbuild.xml, first save it.

Then right-click onbuild.xml inthe Editor or in the PackageExplorer

Select either Run as > 1 Ant Build, and see

the next slide for the result, or,for more options,

Run as > 2 Ant Build (note `2and dots!)

In the opened dialog box

choose Targets tab

the default target is automaticallyselected,

but you can choose other targets

(here we have only one) click the Runbutton


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Running Ant inside of Eclipse

This produces the following output in Eclipses Console view:

Buildfile: H:\eclipse\Hello\build.xmlprint message: [echo] Hello from Ant!BUILD SUCCESSFULTotal time: 161 milliseconds

Note that selecting Run > 2 Ant Buildabove gives us thepossibility to choose any sequence of targets in the build file toexecute them in any order we want (and something more).

To re-run, click the button (the green part, not the black triangle;do not mix this button with the other similar button used for runningJava and JUnit classes).


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Default Ant Editor

The default editor for arbitrary .xml file (notnecessarilybuild.xml) is a

simple text editor (not adapted to work withy Antbuild files)

But we want to use build files with arbitrary names(say, our oldMYBUILD-07.xml),

Let us assigndefault Ant editor to any xmlfile (suchas, our old fileMYBUILD-07.xml).

Choose

Window > Preferences > General >

Editors > File Associations


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Default Ant Editor


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Thank you!

Presented by: Ankit Sharma

BPM-SOA Team

Ant and Eclipse

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