How to macro-ify ant targets? - ant

Question

I want to be able to have different targets doing nearly the same thing, as so:
ant build <- this would be a normal (default) build
ant safari <- building the safari target.
The targets look like this:
<target name="build" depends="javac" description="GWT compile to JavaScript">
<java failonerror="true" fork="true" classname="com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="src"/>
<path refid="project.class.path"/>
</classpath>
<jvmarg value="-Xmx256M"/>
<arg value="${lhs.target}"/>
</java>
</target>
<target name="safari" depends="javac" description="GWT compile to Safari/JavaScript">
<java failonerror="true" fork="true" classname="com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="src"/>
<path refid="project.class.path"/>
</classpath>
<jvmarg value="-Xmx256M"/>
<arg value="${lhs.safari.target}"/>
</java>
</target>
(Nevermind the first thought that strikes: throw out ant! That's not an option just yet.) I tried using macrodef, but got a strange error message (even though the message didn't imply it, it think it had to do with putting a target in sequential). I don't want write a cmdline as so: ant -Dwhatever=nevermind. Any ideas?

Answer 1

My first try (without being able to test it at the moment):
<target name="build" depends="javac, create.mymacro" description="GWT compile to JavaScript">
<mymacro target="${lhs.target}"/>
</target>
<target name="safari" depends="javac, create.mymacro" description="GWT compile to Safari/JavaScript">
<mymacro target="${lhs.safari.target}"/>
</target
<target name="create.mymacro">
<macrodef name="mymacro">
<attribute name="target" default="${lhs.target}"/>
<sequential>
<java failonerror="true" fork="true" classname="com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="src"/>
<path refid="project.class.path"/>
</classpath>
<jvmarg value="-Xmx256M"/>
<arg value="#{target}"/>
</java>
</sequential>
</macrodef>
</target>