<target name="three">
<echo message="A & B"/>
</target>
whenever i m running this code it shows the error like The entity name must immediately follow the '&' in the entity reference.
how can i print A & B
pls help me out guys
Use & instead of &
Ant scripts must be valid XML, so the ampersand needs XML-escaping:
<target name="three">
<echo message="A & B"/>
</target>
Related
here is what am trying to do, I want to replace name and address from my large number of property files during build, but unfortunately I cant do this, is there a better way of doing this without having to copy paste the foreach twice. can someone help?
<target name="replace" >
<foreach target="replace.name,replace.address" param="foreach.file" inheritall="true">
<path>
<fileset dir="${build.tmp.dir}/resource">
<!-- some complicated conditions go here -->
</path>
</foreach>
</target>
<target name="replace.address">
<echo>replacing #Address# for ${foreach.file}</echo>
<replace file="${foreach.file}" token="#Address#" value="${address}" />
</target>
<target name="replace.name">
<echo>replacing #Name# for ${foreach.file}</echo>
<replace file="${foreach.file}" token="#Name#" value="${Name}" />
</target>
.properties file looks like
name=#Name#
address=#Address#
target of foreach is not designed to take more than one target name. It only iterates through the provided list, not the provided targets.
To make the implementation more DRY, you may
use a for loop instead of foreach with two antcalls;
use macrodef with for loop -- macrodef can pack several ant xml code into a task-like thing
Actually, for the two targets -- replace.address and replace.name, are you sure that you want to call them from the commandline?
If not, name them -replace.address and -replace.name or use macrodef -- exposing the iteration body of foreach is not a good practice.
Hi all please give a look to this code
in my properties file i have
win-x86.pc-shared-location=E:\Ant_Scripts
Now below i am trying to call PrintInstallerName_build from my build.xml,while as PrintInstallerName_build is in test.xml. In build.xml file,${platform.id} has value=win-x86 in the calling target and in called target param1 also has value=win-x86
<target name="PrintInstallerName" >
<echo>PlatForm.Id====>${platform.id}</echo>
<ant antfile="test.xml" target="PrintInstallerName_build">
<property name="param1" value="${platform.id}"/>
</ant>
<target name="PrintInstallerName_build" >
<echo>${param1.pc-shared-location}</echo><!--${param1.pc-shared-location}-->
<echo>${param1}.pc-shared-location}</echo><!--win-x86.pc-shared-location-->
<echo>${win-x86.pc-shared-location}</echo><!--E:\\Ant_Scripts-->
</target>
as you can see only the last statement gives correct output but it is hardcoded,i want to use param1 and the output should be E:\\Ant_Scripts i tried to use $ and # but none works,may be i am doing wrong somewhere can someone help please,i am struck and tomorrow is its DOD.
See Nesting of Braces in the Properties page of the Ant Manual.
In its default configuration Ant will not try to balance braces in
property expansions, it will only consume the text up to the first
closing brace when creating a property name. I.e. when expanding
something like ${a${b}} it will be translated into two parts:
the expansion of property a${b - likely nothing useful.
the literal text } resulting from the second closing brace
This means you can't use easily expand properties whose names are
given by properties, but there are some workarounds for older versions
of Ant. With Ant 1.8.0 and the the props Antlib you can configure Ant
to use the NestedPropertyExpander defined there if you need such a
feature.
You can use <propertycopy> to make it happen.
Consider that you need to have the property value of ${propA${propB}}
Use ant tag of propertycopy as follows:
<propertycopy property="myproperty" from="PropA.${PropB}"/>
<echo >${myproperty}</echo>
This will echo the value of ${propA${propB}}
<target name="PrintInstallerName_process" >
<echo>${param1}</echo><!--win-x86-->
<macrodef name="testing">
<attribute name="v" default="NOT SET"/>
<element name="some-tasks" optional="yes"/>
<sequential>
<echo>Source Dir of ${param1}: ${#{v}}</echo><!-- Dir of Win-x86:E:\Ant_Scripts-->
<some-tasks/>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
<testing v="${param1}.pc-shared-location">
<some-tasks>
</some-tasks>
</testing>
</target>
this is the way it works and for me it works fine anyways #sudocode your tip took me there so thank you very much
Dear, I currently face some problem to retrieve the value of a property setted in a foreach loop. Maybe one of you could help me...
The purpose is to check if one file of a folder has been modified since the corresponding jar has been generated. This way I know if I have to generate the jar again.
What I do is to go through the folder with a foreach loop and if one file match my test, set a property to true.
The problem is that my variable doesn't seems to exist after my loop... Here is a simplified code example that has the same problem:
<target name="target">
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml" classpath="${lib.dir}/ant-contrib.jar"></taskdef>
<foreach target="setVar" param="var" list="a,b"/>
<echo>myreturn in target: ${env.myreturn}</echo>
<property name="env.myreturn" value="c"/>
<echo>myreturn in second: ${env.myreturn}</echo>
</target>
<target name="setVar">
<property name="env.myreturn" value="${var}"/>
<echo>myreturn in setVar: ${env.myreturn}</echo>
</target>
The result of this code is:
target:
setVar:
[echo] myreturn in setVar: a
setVar:
[echo] myreturn in setVar: b
[echo] myreturn in target: ${env.myreturn}
[echo] myreturn in second: c
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
It seems that the variable is correctly set as it could be printed in the "setVar" target but no way to retrieve value from the calling target.
I also know it's not possible to assign a value to a property twice. But the problem doesn't even occurs... When it'll be the case I could add a check on the value of the property before to assign it to be sure it is not already initialized...
Do you have a clue on the way I can solve my problem ???
Many thanks in advance for your help :)
Try <for> task from ant-contrib instead of <foreach>. The <for> task takes advantage of Ant macro facility that came later. It works faster and is more flexible than the older <foreach> task. You are in the same project context when using <for>. That means properties set in the loop will be visible outside of the loop. Of course, normal rules for properties apply... you only get to set it once... unless you use <var> task from ant-contrib to overwrite or unset previously set properties.
Ah the joys of Ant hacking.
Not sure about your foreach problem, but can you not use the uptodate task for your requirement?
Even if I don't need it anymore thanks to sudocode, I found a solution for my question. Maybe it could be useful for someone else...
A collegue talked about the "antcallback" target of ant-contrib: it allows to return a result from a called target to the calling one. With a combination of "for" target and "antcallback" it is possible to do what I wanted to do:
<target name="target">
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml" classpath="${lib.dir}/ant-contrib.jar"></taskdef>
<for param="file">
<path>
<fileset dir="../myDirectory" includes="**/*" />
</path>
<sequential>
<antcallback target="setVar" return="retValue">
<param name="file" value="#{file}"/>
</antcallback>
</sequential>
</for>
<echo>result: ${retValue}</echo>
</target>
<target name="setVar">
<property name="retValue" value="${file}"/>
</target>
"file" contains the name of the file in the directory. It is given to the called target as parameter with value "#{file}" ('#' necessary due to "for" target implementation).
At the end of the main target, ${retValue} contains the first value setted by the "setVar" target. No error is thrown when trying to set it multiple times, so it's not necessary to check if variable has already been instantiated before to set it in "setVar" target.
The <foreach> task uses the same logic as <antcall> under the covers, and any proprrties set inside a target invoked by <antcall> do not have scope beyond the execution of that target.
In other words, the env.myreturn property that you define in the setVar target is lost as soon as execution of that target completes.
This sort of scripting really isn't what Ant is designed for. The Ant-contrib library tries to patch up the holes, but it's still bending it way out of shape.
If you need to write such scripts, and want to use Ant tasks to achieve them, have a look at Gradle instead. It's a rather lovely blend of Groovy (for scripting) and Ant (for the tasks).
The other approaches here (<for>, <var>, <groovy>properties.put(....)</groovy>, <property>, <antcallback>) did not work with ANT 1.9.4, so I used the file system similar to this (pseudocode):
<target name="outer">
<for> <antcall target="inner" /> </for>
<loadproperties srcfile="tmpfile.properties" />
<echo message="${outerprop}" />
</target>
<target name="inner">
<!-- did not work: -->
<!--
<property name="outerprop" value="true" />
<var name="outerprop" value="true" />
<groovy>properties.put('outerprop','true')</groovy>
<antcallback target="setouterprop" />
-->
<echo message="outerprop=true" file="tmpfile.properties" />
</target>
Maybe the other approaches did not work because of my <antcall>, but I need it here. (outerprop is initially unset)
I'm rather new to Ant but I have experienced it's quite good pattern to create generic ant targets which are to be called with antcall task with varying parameters.
My example is compile target, which compiles multiple systems using complex build command which is a bit different for each system. By using pattern described above it's possible not to create copy paste code for that compile command.
My problem here is, that I'm not aware of any way to pass return value (for example the return value of compiler) back to target which called the antcall task. So is my approach pathological and it's simply not possible to return value from antcall task or do you know any workaround?
Thanks,
Use antcallback from the ant-contrib jar instead of antcall
<target name="testCallback">
<antcallback target="capitalize2" return="myKey">
</antcallback>
<echo>a = ${myKey}</echo>
</target>
<target name="capitalize2">
<property name="myKey" value="it works"/>
</target>
Output:
testCallback:
capitalize2:
[echo] a = it works
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
One approach is to write out a property to a temp file using "echo file= ...." or PropertyFile task. Then read the property back in where required. Kludge but works.
Ant tasks are all about stuff goes in, side effect happens. So trying to program in terms of functions (stuff goes in, stuff comes out) is going to be messy.
That said what you can do is generate a property name per invocation and store the result value in that property. You would need to pass in a indentifier so you do not end up trying to create copies of the same property. Something like this:
<target name="default">
<property name="key" value="world"/>
<antcall target="doSomethingElse">
<param name="param1" value="${key}"/>
</antcall>
<echo>${result-${key}}</echo>
</target>
<target name="doSomethingElse">
<property name="hello-${param1}" value="it works?"/>
</target>
But I believe the more typical approach -instead of antcalls- is to use macros. http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/macrodef.html
Antcall can be used from the ant-contrib jar task.
You can get a similar behaviour with the keyword "depends".
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="test" default="main">
<target name="main">
<antcall target="build-system-with-depends" />
<!-- wait for different results -->
<waitfor checkevery="1000" checkeveryunit="millisecond" maxwaitunit="millisecond" maxwait="2000">
<available file="dummy.not.present.file" classname="" property=""></available>
</waitfor>
<antcall target="build-system-with-depends" />
</target>
<target name="build-system-with-depends" depends="do-compiler-stuff">
<echo>$${compiler.result}=${compiler.result}</echo>
</target>
<target name="do-compiler-stuff">
<!-- simulate different return states -->
<tstamp>
<format pattern="yyyyMMddHHmmss" property="compiler.result" />
</tstamp>
</target>
</project>
I was trying to edit the my config.xml file using ant task but I could not do that can anybody tell me How can I edit the xml using ant task automatically so that i dont need to change it manually for every new branch?
The first option to check would be the Ant xslt task. For an introduction to its use see the Ant/XSLT Wikibook.
I've used groovy to do this. groovy is very Java like, so you can create your groovy classes very similarly to a static java method, and have ant call out to your groovy script using the <groovy> task (you will of course need to include the groovy task def).
Because groovy can use Java syntax you can include the org.w3c.com.* libraries to have access to DOM classes.
For example, snippet of code showing the adding a resource ref element to a specifed web.xml file :-
import org.w3c.dom.*;
String web_xml_filename=args[0];
String res_ref_name=args[1];
Document doc = DomHelper.getDoc(web_xml_filename);
Element rootNode=doc.getDocumentElement();
newNode = doc.createElement("resource-ref");
DomHelper.createElement(doc, newNode, "res-ref-name", res_ref_name);
DomHelper.createElement(doc, newNode, "res-type", "javax.sql.DataSource");
DomHelper.createElement(doc, newNode, "description", description);
DomHelper.createElement(doc, newNode, "res-auth", "Container");
rootNode.insertBefore(newNode, nodes.item(0));
DomHelper.writeDoc(doc, web_xml_filename, false);
To call from ant, use the groovy task :-
<groovy src="${e5ahr-groovy.dir}/addResoureRefToJBossWebXML.groovy" classpath="${groovy.dir}">
<arg value="${jboss-web.xml}"/>
<arg value="jdbc/somesource/>
<arg value="java:jdbc/somesource"/>
</groovy>
You can use ReplaceRegExp. Pattern and Expression options won't let you use less than or more than, but it can be replaced with HTML entities. For example:
<replaceregexp byline="true">
<!-- In config.xml this looks like <myVariable></myVariable> -->
<regexp pattern="<myVariable>(.*)</myVariable>" />
<substitution expression="<myVariable>${myVariable.value}</myVariable>" />
<fileset dir="${user.dir}">
<include name="config.xml" />
</fileset>
</replaceregexp>