The Basics
Ant is very similar to the standard Unix tool "make" that just about every
experienced C programmer is familiar with. It does its work based on a build
file, typically called build.xml, that tells Ant how and what to build. The
contents of the build file are marked up in XML, making it rather
self-explanatory. Different actions are triggered by aptly named XML tags
with attributes and subtags detailing the work to be done.
Listing 1 contains an extremely simple build file. First I'll show how to
tell Ant to use this file from the command line and what the output will be,
then I'll dissect the file, explaining the different parts. To get us moving
a "task" is a basic unit of work and a "target" is a grouping of tasks
that does something useful. Your build file will consist of several targets,
each containing one or more tasks. Targets, in turn, are contai... (more)
More Than Marketing
by Steven Berkowitz
On November 7, 2002, Chutney Technologies sponsored a small get-together at
New York City's Marriott Financial Center. When Alan forwarded the invite to
me, my first thought was, "Goodie. Nothing about Web services."
As it turns out, that wasn't entirely true, but Web services was not the
focus. They just came up as incidental to everything else.
The day started with a presentation by Charles Francois, Sun's chief
architect for Sun ONE. Francois talked about the Sun ONE set of products and
was followed by Chris Riley, senior technology evang... (more)
Joey Gibson is a senior consultant and instructor for BravePoint, a consulting company located in Atlanta, GA USA. He is the co-author of Ant Developer's Handbook published by SAMS and available October 18, 2002. He can be reached at jgibson@bravepoint.com or joey@joeygibson.com.
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
