Getting started using Ant scripts with MFT

Use Ant scripts with Managed File Transfer allows you to coordinate complex file transfer operations from an interpreted scripting language.


Ant scripts

Ant scripts (or build files) are XML documents defining one or more targets. These targets contain task elements to run. Managed File Transfer provides tasks which we can use to integrate file transfer function into Apache Ant. To learn about Ant scripts, see the Apache Ant project web page: https://ant.apache.org/

Examples of Ant scripts that use Managed File Transfer tasks are provided with your product installation in the directory MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH/mqft/samples/fteant

On protocol bridge agents, Ant scripts are run on the protocol bridge agent system. These Ant scripts do not have direct access to the files on the FTP or SFTP server.


Namespace

A namespace is used to differentiate the file transfer Ant tasks from other Ant tasks that might share the same name. You define the namespace in the project tag of our Ant script. 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns:fte="antlib:com.ibm.wmqfte.ant.taskdefs" default="do_ping">
 
  <target name="do_ping">
     <fte:ping cmdqm="qm@localhost@1414@SYSTEM.DEF.SVRCONN" agent="agent1@qm1" 
      rcproperty="ping.rc" timeout="15"/>
  </target>

</project>
The attribute xmlns:fte="antlib:com.ibm.wmqfte.ant.taskdefs" tells Ant to look for the definitions of tasks prefixed by fte in the library com.ibm.wmqfte.ant.taskdefs.

You do not need to use fte as your namespace prefix; we can use any value. The namespace prefix fte is used in all examples and sample Ant scripts.


Running Ant scripts

To run Ant scripts that contain the file transfer Ant tasks use the fteAnt command. For example: 
fteAnt -file ant_script_location/ant_script_name
For more information, see fteAnt: run Ant tasks in MFT.


Return codes

The file transfer Ant tasks return the same return codes as the Managed File Transfer commands. For more information, see Return codes for MFT.

Parent topic: Use Apache Ant with MFT


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