Ant: The Definitive Guide: Complete Build Management for Java

by Steve Holzner

Overview

Soon after its launch, Ant succeeded in taking the Java world by storm, becoming the most widely used tool for building applications in Java environments. Like most popular technologies, Ant quickly went through a series of early revision cycles. With each new version, more functionality was added, and more complexity was introduced. Ant evolved from a simple-to-learn build tool into a full-fledged testing and deployment environment.Ant: The Definitive Guide has been reworked, revised and expanded upon to reflect this evolution. It documents the new ways that Ant is being applied, as well as the array of optional tasks that Ant supports. In fact, this new second edition covers everything about this extraordinary build management tool from downloading and installing, to using Ant to test code. Here are just of a few of the features you'll find detailed in this comprehensive, must-have guide:

• Developing conditional builds, and handling error conditions
• Automatically retrieving source code from version control systems
• Using Ant with XML files
• Using Ant with JavaServer Pages to build Web applications
• Using Ant with Enterprise JavaBeans to build enterprise applications

Far exceeding its predecessor in terms of information and detail, Ant: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is a must-have for Java developers unfamiliar with the latest advancements in Ant technology. With this book at your side, you'll soon be up to speed on the premiere tool for cross-platform development.Author Steve Holzner is an award-winning author who s been writing about Java topics since the language first appeared; his books have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596552534
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/13/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Steve Holzner is an award-winning author who has been writing about Java topics since Java first appeared. He's a former PC Magazine contributing editor, and his many books have been translated into 18 languages around the world. His books sold more than 1.5 million copies, and many of his bestsellers have been on Java.
Steve graduated from MIT and got his PhD at Cornell; he's been a very popular member of the faculty at both MIT and Cornell, teaching thousands of students over the years and earning an average student evaluation over 4.9 out of 5.0. He also runs his own software company and teaches week-long classes to corporate programmers on Java around the country.

Table of Contents

Preface; What's Inside; Conventions Used in This Book; What You'll Need; Using Code Examples; We'd Like to Hear from You; Chapter 1: Getting Started; 1.1 Ant's Origins; 1.2 Getting Ant; 1.3 Ant at Work; 1.4 Anatomy of a Build File; 1.5 Running Ant; Chapter 2: Using Properties and Types; 2.1 Using Properties to Control Tasks; 2.2 Using Property Files; 2.3 Handling Data Using Types; Chapter 3: Building Java Code; 3.1 Compiling Code; 3.2 Getting Input from the User; 3.3 Calling Other Ant Tasks; 3.4 Importing Other Build Files; 3.5 Documenting Code; 3.6 Creating JAR Files; 3.7 Setting Build Numbers; 3.8 Setting Timestamps; Chapter 4: Deploying Builds; 4.1 Packaging Applications for Deployment; 4.2 Preparing to Deploy; 4.3 Deploying Applications; 4.4 Scheduling Automatic Builds; Chapter 5: Testing Builds with JUnit; 5.1 Using JUnit; 5.2 Running Test Cases; 5.3 Testing in Batches; 5.4 Running the Build File; 5.5 Extending JUnit; Chapter 6: Getting Source Code from CVS Repositories; 6.1 Source Control and Ant; 6.2 Logging In; 6.3 Working with the Server; 6.4 Getting Version Data; 6.5 Creating Change Logs; 6.6 Finding Changes Between Versions; 6.7 Creating Patches; Chapter 7: Executing External Programs; 7.1 Executing Java Code; 7.2 Executing External Programs; 7.3 Performing Batch Execution; 7.4 Multithreading Tasks; 7.5 Setting Execution Order; Chapter 8: Developing for the Web; 8.1 Creating WAR Archives; 8.2 Creating CAB Files; 8.3 Creating Simple Web Deployment; 8.4 Deploying with SCP; 8.5 Deploying to Tomcat; 8.6 Deploying to Tomcat; 8.7 Compiling JSPs; 8.8 Deploying to EJB Containers; Chapter 9: XML and XDoclet; 9.1 Validating XML Documents; 9.2 Loading Properties from XML Files; 9.3 Creating Ant Task DTDs; 9.4 Transforming XML Using XSLT; 9.5 Using XDoclet; 9.6 Developing Enterprise JavaBeans; Chapter 10: Optional Tasks; 10.1 Using Sound; 10.2 Creating Splash Screens; 10.3 Subtituting Text Using Regular Expressions; 10.4 Handling Dependencies; Chapter 11: Integrating Ant with Eclipse; 11.1 Introducing Eclipse; 11.2 Running Ant Build Files; 11.3 Using a Different Version of Ant; 11.4 Using the Ant View; Chapter 12: Extending Ant; 12.1 Creating a Simple Custom Ant Task; 12.2 Extending the Task Class; 12.3 Creating Custom Listeners; 12.4 Creating Custom Loggers; 12.5 Creating Custom Filters; 12.6 Creating Custom Selectors; 12.7 Creating New Types; Colophon;