Good Idea. Here I was trying to get folk who'd been mostly doing everything with batch files up to speed on ant etc and I wrote a sample project based on the Jakarta Struts 'blank' sample and the structure described in the TADG (Tomcat Application Developer's Guide - http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.0-doc/appdev/index.html) ; it is really useful to have a template like this (ie not just a build.xml but the directory structure and other useful files) to get a development up and running. I would STRONGLY recommend you do this too, its been a big winner here!
I don't think you can create a completely generic template though, unless you are prepared to dump all your dependencies in the one place for ant to find them. The TADG says not to do this (and rightly IMHO) because you end up with a copy of every dependency in every project, filling up source safe/cvs. For our local projects we compromised by having a separate 'common' directory outside of projects where we could stick these dependencies. You're also going to want separate 'generic' build scripts for web-app projects, jar projects (with no main class), etc. The TADG has a different goal from yours though - its supposed to be a simple starting point you can edit, whereas you're talking about something which may be quite complex. Anyhoo - you might be interested in this bug report I raised on their build.xml http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4917 ... not because its fab, but because it fixes some issues I had with the original, in case you decide to look at that. One last niggle I have with the template projects I use at the moment is that, while they work well in ant, there is no way to 'import' ant settings into eg netbeans so that it understands my classpath, directory locations, etc. Best of luck - Baz > Hi, > > I was wondering, how do people feel about developing "common", > "universal", "generic" build.xml scripts for common needs? > > I have hordes of mini-projects on the go, the end result of each is: > - a jar file > - some javadocs > - some config files > - the above all packaged as a .tar.gz and .zip > > > My very first build.xml was copied from an Apache project, and hacked to > meet my needs. Subsequent projects were all cut-and-paste affairs. Over > time, as I noticed that most projects are pretty similar, I formalized > this by creating a "generic" build.xml, and an associated template > project structure. > > This system has been working nicely for many months. Project-specific > customizations are all kept to an external build.properties file, which > allows the build.xml to evolve independently. > > I'm sure other people have evolved similar solutions. Sooo.. how about > evolving some _shared_ solutions? > > Of course, what constitutes a "good" build.xml is extremely subjective, > and even if the scope is strictly regulated I doubt we could reach > "consensus". Multiple solutions are fine with me. But *whatever* we can > achieve together is better than what we can achieve independently. > > The big winner should be newcomers, who just want to get their code > building. They can now download a "turnkey" solution; plug your code in > and go :) Ant gains new users, and today's newbies are tomorrow's > contributors. > > > So what I'd like to know from y'all: > > 1) Does this sound workable? (and for what definition of "this"?) > 2) Do you have a generic build system to contribute? > > > If there's critical mass, let's wander off and form a sourceforge > project to discuss it; come up with categories, associated solutions, > document pros and cons; then come back here and twist arms until they > let us form a jakarta-ant-template subproject :) > > > To get the ball rolling, I've put up my attempt at: > > <a href="/bti/redirect.html?http://opensource.socialchange.net.au/build/"; >target="newLink">http://opensource.socialchange.net.au/build/</a> > > I've attached -projecthelp output at the end, to give you a brief idea of what > it does. But let's discuss the general concept on this thread, rather than my > implementation. > > Looking forward to everyone's comments :) > > > --Jeff > > > > jeff@expresso:~/sco/share/doctype$ ant -projecthelp > Buildfile: build.xml > Default target: > > main Main (default) target > > Main targets: > > clean Cleans the build result. > compile Compiles the source code > compile-tests Compile the unit tests > dist Create a distribution with documentation > dist.lite Create a minimal distribution with no documentation > dist.tgz Creates a .tar.gz distribution > dist.zip Creates a zipped distribution > docs Build the non-javadoc docs > jar Creates a jar of the code > javadocs Creates the API documentation > main Main (default) target > prepare Prepare the directories > prepare-tests Create minimal unit test directories > test Run the unit tests > test-report Run the unit tests and generate HTML reports > > Subtargets: > > clean-test > copy-bin > copy-conf > copy-docs > copy-licenses > copy-resources > ctags > define-tokens > docs_check > docs_delegate > init > javadoc_check > > > BUILD SUCCESSFUL > > Total time: 1 second > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
