Eclipse: buildfile using ant.

[Mariam A. Shamsi]

Hello everybody,

I am working on eclipse 3.4.0 to build a dynamic we project that uses apache server and
derby network server (for database connection). I am done with the project and I need
now to have a buildfile that can be used to run the software during the deployement process-
separately from eclipse-. Also, the project requires some kind of calling external tools
like jarsigner, jarverify, copying libraries, classes, keys, etc to be run successfully.
I searched a lot about how to do this (automation) using eclipse, and I found something about "ant".
I am not familiar with this tool, thus can you please let me know how to use this "ant"
to "automatically" generate build file for the project? And how to let "ant" be able to create
directory tree, use external tools, copy classes, etc? Is it possible?

Please, I spent lot of time searching about this without brilliant results.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Have you looked at the Ant website yet? It's a hard word to find just by searching since "Ant" is a common English word!

[Mariam A. Shamsi]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Have you looked at the Ant website yet? It's a hard word to find just by searching since "Ant" is a common English word!

Yes, I looked at this website, but it seems that the process is not automated. My question is:
How to create buid.xml for dynamic web project automatically . Please let me know if this
possible under eclipse or not.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Eclipse 3.4 is supposed to have an option to right click a project and export the build.xml. This would give you a starting point.

Ant still wouldn't generate everything - just what your workspace build does.

(Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet from Eclipse.)

[Mariam A. Shamsi]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Eclipse 3.4 is supposed to have an option to right click a project and export the build.xml. This would give you a starting point.

Ant still wouldn't generate everything - just what your workspace build does.

(Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet from Eclipse.)

Thanks a lot, another question, can you help me in constructing the structure of build.xml for
dynamic web project that uses derby and apache tomcat server? And, is there any way that
let ant creats jar files for java packages for me?

[Martijn Verburg]

Ant has a Jar task which will create a jar for you. Your dynamic web app structure can be anything really, Ant will give you the flexibility to work around that. I highly recommend you work through the Ant tutorials on their website.