Well Diane, it worked like a charm. Thank you very much. I have written the
target as you suggested and if not all properties are set, then the build
fails with a message saying what properties are needed. This exactly what I
wanted.
Below is the actual xml portion if anyone is interested:
....
<target name="check" description="Checks weather project is ready for
building">
<tstamp/>
<echo message="Build started: ${DSTAMP}"/>
<property name="check.src.home" value="$${src.home}"/>
<property name="check.compile.to" value="$${compile.to}"/>
<property name="check.dist.home" value="$${dist.home}"/>
<property name="check.javadoc.home" value="$${javadoc.home"/>
<property name="check.doccheck.home" value="$${doccheck.home}"/>
<property name="check.packages" value="$${packages}"/>
<property name="check.lib.home" value="$${lib.home}"/>
<property name="check.extlibs.home" value="$${extlibs.home}"/>
<condition property="missing.properties">
<or>
<equals arg1="${check.src.home}" arg2="${src.home}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.compile.to}" arg2="${compile.to}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.dist.home}" arg2="${dist.home}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.javadoc.home}" arg2="${javadoc.home}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.doccheck.home}" arg2="${docheck.home}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.packages}" arg2="${packages}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.lib.home}" arg2="${lib.home}"/>
<equals arg1="${check.extlibs.home}" arg2="${extlibs.home}"/>
</or>
</condition>
<antcall target="help"/>
</target>
<target name="help" if="missing.properties">
<echo>
Not all needed properties are set!!!
This build file needs a build.properies file to set the following
properties:
src.home - The source code (.java files) home.
compile.to - Where the classes are compiled to.
dist.home - The directory where distribution files are created.
javadoc.home - The directory for the javadoc html.
doccheck.home - The directory for the DocCheck html
packages - the packages to compile, it accepts * (ie tv.*)
lib.home - Directory where needed jar's are stored.
extlibs.hom - Directory where needed jar's are copied from.
Other properties can also be set in this file (like build.compiler, etc).
</echo>
<fail message="Not all needed properties are set!!!"/>
</target>
....
I made my other targets like prepare and clean depend on check, and it
appears to be working great.
Ylan Segal.
