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- Written by Nam Ha Minh
- Last Updated on 07 August 2019   |   Print Email
By default, Eclipse does not generate any Ant build file for project. However you can add your own Ant script for the project when required. Suppose you want to have Eclipse bundles your dynamic web project in a WAR file after every build of the project. Follow these steps:
Create an Ant build script in Eclipse:
First off, we need to create our own Ant build file. Right click on the project, select
New > Other… from context menu. In the
New dialog, select
XML > XML File:
Click
Next. In
the New XML File dialog, type
antbuild.xmlinto File name field:
Click
Finish, the empty
antbuild.xml file is created under project’s root directory. Write content for this file as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="project">
<description>
This is a custom Ant build file which contains a target that
package the web application as a deployable WAR file.
</description>
<target name="makeWAR" description="Bundles the application as a WAR file">
<war destfile="UploadServlet30.war"
basedir="WebContent"
needxmlfile="false">
</war>
</target>
</project>
The build file contains only one target -
makeWAR, which uses war task to generate WAR file
UploadServlet30.war includes files from
WebContent directory. The property
needxmlfile is set to
false because the project is using Servlet 3.0 API which does not require
web.xml file.
Note: it is more convenient to edit Ant build file using Ant editor in order to take full advantages of code hint and completion for Ant script. To do so, right click on Ant build file, select
Open With > Ant Editor. If the Ant Editor is not available in the context menu, select
Other…, and select
Ant Editor from
Editor selection dialog.
Add Ant build to project’s builders
Next, we need to make some configurations to tell Eclipse executing our custom Ant build after every project build.Open project’s properties dialog by right click on the project and select
Properties (or from main menu
Project > Properties). In the properties dialog, select
Builders, you will see a screen like this:
This screen shows a list of builders which are used by Eclipse when building the project. The order of builders does matter: the top most is called first, then to the second one, and so on.To add a new Ant build to the list, click the
New… button. In the dialog
Choose configuration type, select
Ant builder and click
OK:
In the
Edit Configuration dialog, under
Main tab:
- Type Ant_Builder into Name field.
- Under Buildfile section, click Browse Workspace to select antbuild.xml file created previously.
- Under Base Directory section, click Browse Workspace to select project’s root directory.
Now switch to
Targets tab. In this screen, we can assign targets from our Ant build file for 4 build actions:
- After a “Clean”.
- Manual Build.
- Auto Build.
- During a “Clean”.
Since we need to build a WAR file automatically after every build, we should assign the target
makeWAR for
Auto Build action. Click button
Set Targets to the right of
Auto Build section. In the
Set Targets dialog, select the target
makeWAR:
Click
OK. The target
makeWAR is now assigned to
Auto Build action:
Note: You can select multiple targets for a build action.Click
OK to close the
Edit Configuration dialog and return to project properties dialog, our new builder –
Ant_Builder is appended to the list:
The Ant_
Builder is at the end of the list which means it is executed lastly, after other builders.
Note: use
Up or
Down button to change order of the builder.
Ant build execution in Eclipse
Because we assigned the target
makeWAR for
Auto Build action, the target is executed after every Eclipse’s auto build, as seen in the
Console view:
And a WAR file,
UploadServlet30.war, is generated after every build, as a result of executing the custom ant build script.
Remove Ant build from project’s builders
When the custom Ant build is no longer needed, we can disable or remove it by clicking the checkbox to disable or clicking button
Remove to remove it completely.
The builder is removed from builders list, but the ant build file is not deleted.
Related Tutorials:
Other Eclipse Tutorials:
About the Author:
Nam Ha Minh is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He started programming with Java in the time of Java 1.4 and has been falling in love with Java since then. Make friend with him on
Facebook and watch
his Java videos you YouTube.