Using Ant for Java development

Author: (USA) Hatte
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Ant is the most widely used Java project build tool, featuring cross-platform, easy to extend, simple, and fast characteristics. It is highly scalable, suitable for everything from small personal projects to large multi-team J2EE projects, demonstrating its versatility across various project scales. Most importantly, it is easy to master. "Using Ant for Java Development" systematically teaches the basics of Ant and then explores how to use it effectively and creatively. It unfolds its content step by step, covering every aspect needed for compiling, testing, packaging, and deploying applications. Later, it effortlessly guides you through the complexities often encountered in large-scale enterprise Java applications and Web Services projects. The book covers: manipulating Ant's datatypes and properties; JUnit testing and report generation; continuous integration techniques; XDoclet for aspect-oriented programming; generating, building, and packaging EJBs; writing and testing local code; building Web Services using Apache Axis; deploying systems to multiple remote servers; using and writing. "I must admit I was wrong: I thought your book would be great, but no, it's truly fantastic!" – Stephane Bailliez, Ant contributor "If you're using Ant, this is the book for you." – Rick Hightower "This is an essential Ant reference book." – Nicholas Lesiecki Ant, a highly acclaimed Java build tool. It has become an integral part of many project build processes due to its ease of use, platform independence, and alignment with today's needs for automated testing and deployment. Currently, it has become an independent tool adopted by all major open-source Java projects and has become the de facto standard. The authors, hailed by Mr. Sam Ruby as "two most knowledgeable people about ANT," will teach you Ant in the best way possible, starting with a simple build definition and then demonstrating the features needed for joining your project. If you are a beginner to Ant, this book will systematically guide you through the core steps most Java projects go through: compiling, testing, execution, packaging, and distribution. If you are an experienced Ant user, this book will teach you how to use Ant to "enhance system capabilities." So, regardless of your experience with Ant, you will learn a great deal from this book, and your software project will benefit greatly from using Ant as the foundation of its build process. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides the basics of Ant and its functionalities. Part 2 discusses a topic per chapter, exploring multiple projects and introducing the key role Ant plays in each. Part 3 is written for advanced users who want to break beyond their current capabilities.