Welcome To My

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Joe Kueser

• Welcome To My
• Ant/Cruise Control

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Joe Kueser
Welcome To My Ant/Cruise Control
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Whats A Joe Kueser?

• Have been programming for a whopping 23 years!!!
• BASIC on a Timex Sinclair 1000
• BASIC on an Atari 400/800/1040ST
• Assembly and Pascal on an Apple
• GW Basic on an IBM 8088
• Visual Basic, VBA, Mumps, C/C, Java, HTML, WML,
  ASP, JSP, PHP, many flavors of databases.
• 9 Years Professional Experience
• Law, Medical, Telecommunications, Wireless, Web
  page development/design, Military Simulation, and
  Homeland Defense

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Who Cares?
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Whats He Talking About?

• Ant
• Basic Overview
• Cool Tasks
• Example Script
• Typical Uses
• Not-So-Typical Uses
• Cruise Control
• General Overview
• Advantages/Disadvantages
• The Future of Cruise Control
• References
• Web Pages, Etc.

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An
Ant
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A Little History Lesson

• Ant was originally part of the Tomcat code base,
  and ONLY supported the Tomcat project.
• When Tomcat became part of the Jakarta project,
  it became evident that it could solve some of the
  problems associated with Make.
• Released publicly in April of 2000 with Tomcat.
  (Version 0.3.1)
• First independent release was Ant 1.1 in July of
  2000.

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What Is Ant?

• A build tool like make
• Open Source
• Part of Apaches Jakarta project.
• Implemented in Java
• Written for Java
• Used to build many open-source Java projects

Ant Development Cycle
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Why Is It Called Ant?

• According to the author (James Duncan Davidson)
• Because ants do an extremely good job of building
  things.
• Because ants are very small and can carry a dozen
  times their own weight
• Stands for Another Neat Tool

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How is Ant like Make?

• Its a build tool
• It has build targets make options
  target ant options target
• That is pretty much where the similarities end

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How Is Ant Different?

• XML-based instead of script based.
• Extended using Java classes.
• Built-in multi-platform support
• Automagically builds projects recursively (so
  there is no need for multiple build files.)

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What Makes Ant So Cool?

• Only requires a Java VM to use.
• It is extended using Java classes, which makes it
  almost like fun for Java developers.
• Easier to do Java-specific tasks, such as
  JavaDocs, WAR and JAR files, and Enterprise
  JavaBeans.
• Instead of writing cryptic shell commands, the
  configuration files are easy to read XML.
• Each task is defined in a separate XML block,
  making adding or removing additional tasks a
  breeze.

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What Makes Ant So Cool? (cont)

• Its FAST! (Uses the same VM for entire process)
• Because it is Java based, it is easily
  expandable, and inherently cross-platform.
• All of the cool Java IDEs have built-in support
  for Ant. (JBuilder seems to be the only
  exception.)
• It can easily operate recursively, so only one
  Ant build script is required for most projects.
• Ant has built-in CVS support.
• Ant has built-in FTP support.
• Ant has built-in JUnit support.

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How Does Ant Work?

• Ant commands (or tasks) are implemented by Java
  classes
• many tasks are built-in
• others come in optional JAR files
• custom commands can be easily created
• Each project using Ant will have a build file
• typically called build.xml Ants default
• Each build file is composed of any number of
  targets
• these correspond to common activities like
  compiling and running code

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How Does Ant Work? (cont)

• Each target is composed of tasks
• executed in sequence when the target is executed
• like make, Ant targets can have dependencies
• for example, the build file may have a task to
  build a JAR file, and can specify that before the
  JAR file can be created, package B needs to be
  compiled, and before package B is compiled,
  package A must be compiled.

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How Does Ant Work? (cont)

• Ant Targets
• Can be specified on the command-line
• A default can be defined, and will be used if no
  target is specified on the command-line.
• Ant stops execution of the build when any errors
  are encountered.
• Generally a good thing, but frustrating on large
  projects.
• Each target is executed only once, no matter how
  many other targets define it as a dependency.

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How Does Ant Work? (cont)

• Ant Targets (cont)
• Some tasks may be skipped, such as a compile task
  if no source has changed.

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What Can Ant Do?

• Compile
• ltjavacgt
• lttarget namecompilegt
• ltjavac srcdirsrc destdirbuild/gt
• lt/targetgt
• Package
• Jar, Tar, War, Zip
• Test
• JUnit, Cactus, ltjavagt
• Document
• JavaDoc, JUnit Reports, Build Log, Mail/MimeMail

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What Can Ant Do? (cont)

• Deploy
• FTP, Telnet, Unwar, Untar, Unjar, Unzip
• Source code management
• CVS, SourceSafe, ClearCase, Perforce
• and practically anything you want!

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Ant Gotchas To Watch For

• Like Unix, Ant doesnt take kindly to spaces in
  filenames. They should be avoided when possible.
• Using carriage returns in the replace command
  doesnt work well, avoid using them when
  replacing.
• Ant depends exclusively on date/time stamps to
  decide what needs to be rebuilt, so be careful!

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Ant Gotchas To Watch For

• Ant assumes you are using Sun-recommended Java
  package structures. (anything in the
  com.myco.demo package will be found in
  ./com/myco/demo/ directory) If you do not follow
  this convention, you are asking for trouble.
• Tough to get very large, multi-language projects
  under control. Best to use multiple build files,
  or stick with Make.

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Build File Example

• ltproject name"MyProject" default"dist"
  basedir"."gt
• ltdescriptiongt
• simple example build file
• lt/descriptiongt
• lt!-- set global properties for this build --gt
• ltproperty name"src" location"src"/gt
• ltproperty name"build" location"build"/gt
• ltproperty name"dist" location"dist"/gt
• lttarget name"init"gt
• lt!-- Create the time stamp --gt
• lttstamp/gt
• lt!-- Create the build directory used by
  compile --gt
• ltmkdir dir"build"/gt
• lt/targetgt

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Build File Example

• lttarget name"compile" depends"init"
• description"compile the source " gt
• lt!-- Compile code from src into build
  --gt
• ltjavac srcdir"src" destdir"build"/gt
• lt/targetgt
• lttarget name"dist" depends"compile"
• description"generate the distribution" gt
• lt!-- Create the distribution directory --gt
• ltmkdir dir"dist/lib"/gt
• lt!-- Put everything in build into the
  MyProject-DSTAMP.jar file --gt
• ltjar jarfile"dist/lib/MyProject-DSTAMP.
  jar" basedir"build"/gt
• lt/targetgt

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Build File Example

• lttarget name"clean"
• description"clean up" gt
• lt!-- Delete build and dist dirs --gt
• ltdelete dir"build"/gt
• ltdelete dir"dist"/gt
• lt/targetgt
• lt/projectgt

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Executing An Ant Script

• In its basic form, an Ant script can be run by
  simply typing Ant
• Command-line option summaryant options
  target target2 target3 ...
• Options (trimmed to fit page)-help print
  this message -projecthelp print project help
  information -version print the version
  information and exit -quiet be extra quiet
  -verbose be extra verbose -logfile file use
  given file for log output -logger classname the
  class that performs logging-listener classname
  add class as a project listener -buildfile file
  use specified buildfile -Dpropertyvalue set
  property to value

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Ants Commands

• ant -projecthelp
• lists targets in build.xml of the current
  directory
• Searching for build.xml ...
• Buildfile C\MyJava\Samples\build.xml
• Main targets
• clean deletes all generated files
• compile compiles source files
• deploy deploys the war file to Tomcat
• dtd generates a DTD for Ant build files
• javadoc generates javadoc from all .java files
• prepare create output directories
• test runs all JUnit tests
• undeploy undeploys the war file from Tomcat
• war builds the war file

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Ant Commands

• ltant/gt
• calls a target in another build file
• useful to build subprojects
• ltantstructure/gt
• generates a DTD describing all known tasks
• ltcvs/gt
• executes any CVS command

• ltexec/gt
• executes a system command
• ltexecon/gt
• like Exec but files and directories are passed as
  arguments to the system command
• ltfilter/gt
• used by tasks that copy files to replace all
  occurrences of an _at_ delimited string with another
  string

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Ant Commands

• ltfixcrlf/gt
• changes line endings in a set of files to the
  convention of the current OS
• ltget/gt
• creates a copy of a remote file at a specified
  URL
• can use http and ftp URLs

• ltjavadoc/gt
• generates javadoc HTML files from Java source
  files
• ltmail/gt
• sends email using SMTP
• ltmkdir/gt
• creates a directory and any missing parent
  directories
• ltpatch/gt
• applies a diff to file

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Ant Commands

• ltproperty/gt
• sets properties that can be used in the current
  target and other targets
• can load from a property file
• ltreplace/gt
• replaces all occurrences of a string with another
  string in a file
• ltrmic/gt
• runs the rmic compiler on .class files of Java
  classes that implement java.rmi.Remote

• ltsignjar/gt
• uses javasign to add a digital signature to a jar
  or zip file
• ltsql/gt
• executes a sequence of SQL statements specified
  in the build file or an external text file
• output can be written to a file
• ltstyle/gt (alias ltxslt/gt)
• applies an XSLT stylesheet to a set of XML files
  to produce a set of output files

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Ant Commands

• lttaskdef/gt
• defines a custom task that can be used in the
  project
• lttouch/gt
• creates a file if it doesnt exist
• updates its modification time if it does
• ltunjar/gt
• expands a JAR file
• ltuntar/gt
• expands a TAR file

• lttstamp/gt
• sets the DSTAMP (ccyymmdd, i.e., 20020926),
  TSTAMP (hhmm) and TODAY (month day year)
  properties to the current date/time
• useful for creating files and directories with
  names that reflect their creation date/time

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Ant Commands (New to 1.5)

• ltcvschangelog/gt
• generates an XML report of changes that occur on
  CVS repository.
• ltloadpropertiesgt
• to load contents of file as Ant properties.
• ltloadfilegt
• to load a whole file into a property.

• ltechopropertiesgt
• to list your current properties to the screen or
  a file.
• ltreplaceregexpgt, ltchecksumgt, lttranslategt,
  ltwaitforgt, ltmanifestgt,ltvsscreategt, ltsplashgt,
  ltconcatgt, ltsourceoffsitegt, ltjarlib-availablegt,
  ltjarlib-displaygt,.

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Ant Optional Tasks

• Cab
• creates a Microsoft CAB archive from a set of
  files
• FTP
• lists, gets, puts and deletes files on an FTP
  server
• JavaCC
• CC stands for Compiler Compiler
• reads a grammar specification and creates a Java
  application that can recognize matches to the
  grammar

• Jlink
• builds jar/zip files by merging entries from
  multiple jar/zip files
• JUnit
• runs JUnit tests
• Script
• executes a script written in a Bean Scripting
  Framework (BSF) language
• includes JavaScript, PerlScript, VBScript,
  JPython and others

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Creating Custom Tasks

• Steps
• create a Java class that
• extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task
• has a no-arg constructor
• plan the attributes, text and child elements that
  your task element will use
• for each attribute, add a set method
• public void setAttrName(type attrName)
• type can be String or any Java primitive type
• for text, add an addText method
• public void addText(String text)

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Creating Custom Tasks

• Steps (contd)
• for each child element, add a create or add
  method
• public ChildTask createChildTask()
• for empty child task elements
• public void addChildTask(ChildTask child)
• for non-empty child task elements
• add the method that implements the tasks
• public void execute()
• compile the class
• insure that it can be found using the CLASSPATH
  environment variable

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Creating Custom Tasks

• import org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException
• import org.apache.tools.ant.Task
• public class MyVeryOwnTask extends Task
• private String msg
• // The method executing the task
• public void execute() throws BuildException
• System.out.println(msg)
• // The setter for the "message" attribute
• public void setMessage(String msg)
• this.msg msg

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Ant External Tasks/Tools

• Anakia
• XML transformation tool based on JDOM, Velocity
  and Ant.
• Anteater
• a set of Ant tasks for the functional testing of
  websites and web services.
• Checkstyle
• help programmers write Java code that adheres to
  a coding standard.

• CleanImports
• Removes unneeded imports and formats import
  sections.
• Clover
• an Ant-based Code Coverage tool. Provides method,
  statement, and branch coverage analysis
• jMetra
• tool for collecting code metrics. Compiles the
  results into JavaDoc-styled documentation to
  analyze project metrics over time.

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Cruise Control

• Open Source
• a set of tasks to automate the checkout/
  build/test cycle
• provides a servlet for viewing the status of the
  current build as well as the results of previous
  builds

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Advantages of Using CC

• Easy Setup
• Install a Servlet under TomCat
• Edit a well documented config file
• Execute a shell/bat script
• Watches CVS, and kicks off a build
  automatically when any new files are detected.
• Emails anyone defined in the config file whenever
  a build fails

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Advantages of Using CC

• Will report that build was successful when it is
  fixed.
• Can do a clean build at an interval you
  specify. (Means quicker incremental builds.)
• Has built-in support for JUnit, for automated
  tests after every build.
• Reports JUnit results, and build results on a web
  page generated by servlet.

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A Few Downfalls

• Does a build when ANY file is checked in,
  including data files, and then generates a Build
  Failed message because no build was needed.
• Because it doesnt always do a clean build,
  removing or moving files can cause a long series
  of build failed messages.
• Some flakiness when changing JDKs, such as
  missing build results.

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The Future of CruiseControl

• Last version was released over a year ago.
• CORRECTION CC 2 was released on Friday, Sept 27,
  2002 (the day after the presentation)
• A lot of Ant 1.5s new features make the hoops
  Cruise Control jumps through unnecessary, with
  many of Cruise Controls features now supported
  natively.
• Development of CruiseControl 2.0 began about 2
  months ago, though there is no indication on the
  site of what we should expect.

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References

• Ant Web Pages
• http//jakarta.apache.org/ant
• http//jakarta.apache.org/ant/resources.html
• http//www.jguru.com/faq/Ant
• Ant Mailing Lists
• ant-user_at_jakarta.apache.org
• ant-dev_at_jakarta.apache.org
• Cruise Control
• http//cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/
• http//www.cruisecontrol.com/