ant-contrib for loop task fails - ant

Question

To search for multiple string in a fileset I try to use the ant-contrib for .. loop without success.
The documentation has the following simple example
<project name="testing" default="main" basedir=".">
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="/usr/share/java/ant-contrib-0.3.jar"/>
</classpath>
</taskdef>
<task name=main">
<echo message="The first five letters of the alphabet are:"/>
<for list="a,b,c,d,e" param="letter">
<sequential>
<echo>Letter #{letter}</echo>
</sequential>
</for>
</task>
</project>
That fails with
xTest.xml:12: Problem: failed to create task or type for
Cause: The name is undefined.
What's wrong with this?
Not sure if I need the taskdef for ant-contrib-0.3.jar
Note: ANT is running within Eclipse and it has version: "Apache ANT 1.8.2v20110505-1300"

Answer 1

You need to add the taskdef for ant-contrib-0.3.jar. The ant-contrib installation page tells you how to do so:
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="/usr/share/java/lib/ant-contrib-version.jar"/>
</classpath>
</taskdef>
Doing this, I have the following definitions in build.xml:
<project name="sample" basedir=".">
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="C:\\Users\\userdomains\\Downloads\\ant-contrib\\ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar"/>
</classpath>
</taskdef>
<echo message="The first five letters of the alphabet are:"/>
<for list="a,b,c,d,e" param="letter">
<sequential>
<echo>Letter #{letter}</echo>
</sequential>
</for>
</project>
which should now give:
Buildfile: c:\build.xml
[echo] The first five letters of the alphabet are:
[echo] Letter a
[echo] Letter b
[echo] Letter c
[echo] Letter d
[echo] Letter e
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 0 seconds

Answer 2

Also the basic example works, the need as described with first posting
To search for multiple strings in a fileset
isn't solved. Here is what I have right now:
<loadfile property="dtdNAMES" srcFile="_dtdNAMES_1.txt"/>
<echo>.:${dtdNAMES}:.</echo>
<target name="main">
<for list="xyz.name,xyz.version,xyz.general,xyz.generalXXX,xyz.ok" param="search4" delimiter=",">
<!--for list="${dtdNames}" param="search4" delimiter=","-->
<!-- do the stuff here with param -->
<sequential>
<fileset id="existing" dir="../src">
<patternset id="files">
<include name="content/**/*.xul"/>
</patternset>
</fileset>
<resourcecount property="count">
<fileset id="matches" dir="../src">
<patternset refid="files" />
<contains text="#{search4}" />
</fileset>
</resourcecount>
<echo message="Found '#{search4}' in files : '${count}'"/>
</sequential>
</for>
</target>
This has 2 problems:
ad 1. the use of <for list=" .. csv .." just outputs a list with all files and one result like this:
[echo] Found 'xyz.name' in files : '3'
[echo] Found 'xyz.version' in files : '3'
[echo] Found 'xyz.general' in files : '3'
[echo] Found 'xyz.generalXXX' in files : '3'
The result '3' belongs to the very first loop with 'xyz.name', and yes there are 3 matches in all files. But the other strings have other matches in all files. There is no 'xyz.generalXXX' string in any file!
Question: How to get correct results for all strings in all files?
ad 2. For flexibility a final solution needs to replace the list string with a property like
<for list="${dtdNames}" param="search4" delimiter=",">
To the property ${dtdNames} is read a string from a srcFile (see above), and yes it's comma separated, no line breaks! And checked with a echo command.
But that reference fails with
[echo] Found '${dtdNames}' in files : '0'
So it seems the <for /> doesn't allow to work with property?
How to write that correctly?