Ant support

This topic provides an overview of the Ant support provided in the workbench.

Ant is a Java-based build tool that is a project of the Jakarta Apache project. It is similar to Make, except that instead of using operating system shell-based commands, it uses Java classes to perform its operations. The build scripts are XML files containing targets and specifying the tasks (operations) required for each. Ant comes with a large number of built-in tasks sufficient to perform many common build operations. You can learn about them in the Ant user manual on the Jakarta Apache Web site.

Because Ant is Java-based, it is platform-independent. It is well suited for building Java applications, but can be used for other build tasks as well. One of its important features is that you can use Java to write new Ant tasks to extend production build capabilities.

The com.ibm.etools.j2ee.ant plugin contains the following resources:

• A readme.htm file

• An example runAnt.bat file. Use this file to start a "headless" workspace and run the Ant build script.

• An example.xml file. This file shows examples of some of the J2EE tasks included in the plugin.

Several sources of Ant information are available from the Jakarta Apache Ant Project. To learn more about Ant, follow the links below:

• Ant user manual

• Ant user mail list

• Ant user mail list archives

• WebSphere Version 4.0 Application Development Handbook: Chapter 9 explains how to use Ant to build a WebSphere application.

• Automate your build process using Java and Ant: JavaWorld article

• Open Source Java: Ant: onjava.com article

More information about Ant and how to use it with the workbench can be found in the following series of articles:

• Using Ant with WebSphere Studio Application Developer: Part 1 of 3

• Using Ant with WebSphere Studio Application Developer: Part 2 of 3

• Using Ant with WebSphere Studio Application Developer: Part 3 of 3

 

Parent topic

Working with Ant