Ant - Build.xml Updates - 28 Feb

Guys, in my earlier posts we learnt how to write a simple basic build.xml and also learnt about the build.properties. Today we'll modify, update our build.xml to include some more functionality.

Let's add the following 2 features :

• add a MANIFEST.MF file to the jar package which will contain the packaging information
• create documentation using javadoc.

Check out the updated build.xml with the tasks for the same below :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project name="AntBuildTest" default="generate-docs" basedir=".">

<property name="build.home" value="${basedir}" />

<property file="build.properties"/>

<tstamp>

<format property="timestamp" pattern="dd-MM-yyyy"/>

</tstamp>

<target name="clean">

<delete dir="${build.home}/src" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/bin" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/lib" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/test" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/dist" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/docs" />

<delete dir="${build.home}/logs" />

</target>

<target name="createdir" depends="clean">

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/src" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/bin" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/lib" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/test" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/dist" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/docs" />

<mkdir dir="${build.home}/logs" />

</target>

<path id="classpath">

<pathelement location="${build.home}/bin"></pathelement>

<fileset dir="${lib.dir}" includes="**/*.jar"/>

</path>

<target name="copydir" depends="createdir">

<copydir src="${workspace.src}"

dest="${build.home}/src"></copydir>

</target>

<target name="compile" depends="copydir, clean">

<javac classpathref="classpath" includeantruntime="false"

srcdir="${build.home}/src"

destdir="${build.home}/bin"

includes="**/*.java"></javac>

</target>

<target name="create-jar" depends="compile">

<jar basedir="${build.home}/bin" destfile="${build.home}/dist/${timestamp}-TestJar-${versionnum}.jar"

includes="**/*.class">

<manifest>

<attribute name="Main-class" value="com.ironcladzone.FileSize"/>

</manifest>

</jar>

</target>

<target name="generate-docs" depends="create-jar">

<javadoc sourcepath="${build.home}/${src.dir}" destdir="docs"/>

</target>

</project>

Notice the "create-jar" target where we have added the <manifest></manifest> tags in which we have mentioned the main class for instance. This will create a MANIFEST.MF file within the jar. I'll write a new post on the Manifest file soon.

Also for the javadoc, we have a new target named "create-documentation". If you check the folder structure, you'll find the index.html within the docs folder. Try looking into the index.html, you'll see the class and package details in a sample webpage decorated with the default javadoc css stylesheet.