componentdef error with ant - grails

Question

I have an relatively old Grails app that uses ant to build the application. In the test server it build without any problems, but when I try to run it on my PC, I get a consistent error:
Caused by: jar:file:/C:/ant/apache-ant-1.8.0/lib/ant.jar!/org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml:37: Problem: failed to create task or type componentdef
Cause: The name is undefined.
Action: Check the spelling.
Action: Check that any custom tasks/types have been declared.
Action: Check that any <presetdef>/<macrodef> declarations have taken place.
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.getNotFoundException(UnknownElement.java:484)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.makeObject(UnknownElement.java:416)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.maybeConfigure(UnknownElement.java:160)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Antlib.execute(Antlib.java:146)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Definer.loadAntlib(Definer.java:432)
... 63 more
I have found that the error happens in the following part of the build:
<macrodef name="grails">
<attribute name="script"/>
<attribute name="args" default="" />
<sequential>
<grailsTask script="#{script}" args="#{args}" classpathref="grails.classpath">
<compileClasspath refid="compile.classpath"/>
<testClasspath refid="test.classpath"/>
<runtimeClasspath refid="app.classpath"/>
</grailsTask>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
If I comment out , there are no more errors.
For further refererence, here's the whole error dump:
G:\chp\src\hewittportlet\build.xml:131: The following error occurred while executing this line:
G:\chp\src\hewittportlet\build.xml:53: Unable to start Grails: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetExc
eption
at grails.ant.GrailsTask.runGrails(GrailsTask.java:124)
at grails.ant.GrailsTask.execute(GrailsTask.java:78)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:291)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Sequential.execute(Sequential.java:68)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:291)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.MacroInstance.execute(MacroInstance.java:398)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:291)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:390)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:411)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeSortedTargets(Project.java:1360)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1329)
at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:41)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1212)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:801)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:218)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:280)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:109)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.support.GrailsBuildHelper.execute(GrailsBuildHelper.java:9
4)
at grails.ant.GrailsTask.runGrails(GrailsTask.java:113)
... 31 more
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.support.GrailsBuildHelper.execute(GrailsBuildHelper.java:8
8)
... 32 more
Caused by: The following error occurred while executing this line:
jar:file:/C:/ant/apache-ant-1.8.0/lib/ant.jar!/org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml:37: Problem: failed t
o create task or type componentdef
Cause: The name is undefined.
Action: Check the spelling.
Action: Check that any custom tasks/types have been declared.
Action: Check that any <presetdef>/<macrodef> declarations have taken place.
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.addLocationToBuildException(ProjectHelper.java:508)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Definer.loadAntlib(Definer.java:434)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Definer.execute(Definer.java:281)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ComponentHelper.checkNamespace(ComponentHelper.java:790)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ComponentHelper.getDefinition(ComponentHelper.java:260)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ComponentHelper.createComponent(ComponentHelper.java:237)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ComponentHelper.createComponent(ComponentHelper.java:216)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.makeObject(UnknownElement.java:414)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.maybeConfigure(UnknownElement.java:160)
at groovy.util.AntBuilder.nodeCompleted(AntBuilder.java:186)
at groovy.util.BuilderSupport.doInvokeMethod(BuilderSupport.java:147)
at groovy.util.AntBuilder.doInvokeMethod(AntBuilder.java:154)
at groovy.util.BuilderSupport.invokeMethod(BuilderSupport.java:64)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBuilder.invokeMethod(GantBuilder.java:89)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.call(PogoMetaClassSite.java:45)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:40)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:117)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:125)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.initializeGantBinding(GantBinding.groovy:109)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.this$4$initializeGantBinding(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$this$4$initializeGantBinding.callCurrent(Unknown Source)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallCurrent(CallSiteArray.java:
44)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:1
43)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:1
47)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.<init>(GantBinding.groovy:42)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.GrailsScriptRunner.callPluginOrGrailsScript(GrailsScriptRu
nner.java:355)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.GrailsScriptRunner.executeCommand(GrailsScriptRunner.java:
279)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.GrailsScriptRunner.executeCommand(GrailsScriptRunner.java:
205)
... 37 more
Caused by: jar:file:/C:/ant/apache-ant-1.8.0/lib/ant.jar!/org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml:37: Proble
m: failed to create task or type componentdef
Cause: The name is undefined.
Action: Check the spelling.
Action: Check that any custom tasks/types have been declared.
Action: Check that any <presetdef>/<macrodef> declarations have taken place.
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.getNotFoundException(UnknownElement.java:484)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.makeObject(UnknownElement.java:416)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.maybeConfigure(UnknownElement.java:160)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Antlib.execute(Antlib.java:146)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Definer.loadAntlib(Definer.java:432)
... 63 more
Total time: 34 seconds

Answer 1

Grails isn't compatible with Ant 1.8 - you need to use 1.7.x.

Answer 2

I found the source of the problem.
The problem was not the version of Ant, but rather the version of Grails and missing scripts. This application was using a deprecated version of Grails (version 1.1.1).
The following code, which I'm re-listing for everybody's conveniences, is invoking a script. However, in this particular application, the script had been removed, which caused Grails' build process to crash:
<macrodef name="grails">
<attribute name="script"/>
<attribute name="args" default="" />
<sequential>
<grailsTask script="#{script}" args="#{args}" classpathref="grails.classpath">
<compileClasspath refid="compile.classpath"/>
<testClasspath refid="test.classpath"/>
<runtimeClasspath refid="app.classpath"/>
</grailsTask>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
The solution was simple: to upgrade Grails to a more recent version, such as 1.3.5. The build worked without problems after that, even though some scripts were missing.
I would speculate that this new behavior allowed to generate scripts during the scaffolding, but at the same time give the freedom to the developer to remove unwanted or unnecessary scripts.
Thanks to Burth Beckwith for his insights.
Luis Colorado