Tutorial

On Debian /Ubuntu use "apt-get install ant" to install it.

Download Apache Ant from http://ant.apache.org/.

Extract the zip file into a directory structure of your choice. Set the "ANT_HOME" environment variable to this location and include the "ANT_HOME/bin" directory in your path.

Make sure that also the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to the JDK. This is required for running Ant.

Check your installation by opening a command line and typing "ant -version" into the commend line. The system should find the command ant and show the version number of your installed ant.

The following describes how you compile Java classes, create an executable .jar file and create Javadoc for your project with Apache Ant.

Create a Java Project "de.vogella.build.ant.first" in Eclipse. Create a package called "math" and the following class.

				
package math;

public class MyMath {
	public int multi(int number1, int number2) {
		return number1 * number2;
	}
}

			

Create the package "test" and the following class.

				
package test;

import math.MyMath;

public class Main {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		MyMath math = new MyMath();
		System.out.println("Result is: " + math.multi(5, 10));
	}
}

			

Create a new File through File -> New -> File and call the file "build.xml"

Implement this code to your build.xml.

				
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="Ant-Test" default="main" basedir=".">
	<!-- Sets variables which can later be used. -->
	<!-- The value of a property is accessed via ${} -->
	<property name="src.dir" location="src" />
	<property name="build.dir" location="build" />
	<property name="dist.dir" location="dist" />
	<property name="docs.dir" location="docs" />

	<!-- Deletes the existing build, docs and dist directory-->
	<target name="clean">
		<delete dir="${build.dir}" />
		<delete dir="${docs.dir}" />
		<delete dir="${dist.dir}" />
	</target>

	<!-- Creates the  build, docs and dist directory-->
	<target name="makedir">
		<mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
		<mkdir dir="${docs.dir}" />
		<mkdir dir="${dist.dir}" />
	</target>

	<!-- Compiles the java code (including the usage of library for JUnit -->
	<target name="compile" depends="clean, makedir">
		<javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}">
		</javac>

	</target>

	<!-- Creates Javadoc -->
	<target name="docs" depends="compile">
		<javadoc packagenames="src" sourcepath="${src.dir}" destdir="${docs.dir}">
			<!-- Define which files / directory should get included, we include all -->
			<fileset dir="${src.dir}">
				<include name="**" />
			</fileset>
		</javadoc>
	</target>

	<!--Creates the deployable jar file  -->
	<target name="jar" depends="compile">
		<jar destfile="${dist.dir}\de.vogella.build.test.ant.jar" basedir="${build.dir}">
			<manifest>
				<attribute name="Main-Class" value="test.Main" />
			</manifest>
		</jar>
	</target>

	<target name="main" depends="compile, jar, docs">
		<description>Main target</description>
	</target>

</project>
			

The code is documented, you should be able to determine the purpose of the different ant tasks via the documentation in the coding.

Run the build.xml file as an "Ant Build".

After this process your data structure should look like this:

Congratulation! You have successfully used Apache Ant from Eclipse.

Open a command line and switch to your project directory.Type in "ant" or "ant -f build.xml" to start the build process.

Congratulation! You have successfully used Apache Ant from the command line.

Ant allows to create classpath containers and use them in tasks. The following "build.xml" from project "de.vogella.build.ant.classpath" demonstrates this.

				
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="Ant-Test" default="Main" basedir=".">
	<!-- Sets variables which can later be used. -->
	<!-- The value of a property is accessed via ${} -->
	<property name="src.dir" location="src" />
	<property name="lib.dir" location="lib" />
	<property name="build.dir" location="build" />

	<!--
		Create a classpath container which can be later used in the ant task
	-->
	<path id="build.classpath">
		<fileset dir="${lib.dir}">
			<include name="**/*.jar" />
		</fileset>
	</path>

	<!-- Deletes the existing build directory-->
	<target name="clean">
		<delete dir="${build.dir}" />
	</target>

	<!-- Creates the  build  directory-->
	<target name="makedir">
		<mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
	</target>

	<!-- Compiles the java code -->
	<target name="compile" depends="clean, makedir">
		<javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}" classpathref="build.classpath" />
	</target>



	<target name="Main" depends="compile">
		<description>Main target</description>
	</target>

</project>

			

You can use the following statements to write the full classpath to the console. You can use this to easily verify if the classpath is correct.

				
<!-- Write the classpath to the console. Helpful for debugging -->
<!-- Create one line per classpath element-->
<pathconvert pathsep="${line.separator}" property="echo.classpath" refid="junit.class.path">
</pathconvert>
<!-- Write the result to the console -->
<echo message="The following classpath is associated with junit.class.path " />
<echo message="${echo.classpath}" />
			

http://www.vogella.de/code/codejava.html Source Code of Examples