Actually, I've asked for a <propertyset> datatype before, in relation to a
set of (runtime) properties I needed in more than one place (<java> and
<junit>). People said 'just use an entity include', which I do right now,
but it's not a good options.
A <propertyset> would be a collection of named properties (it don't care
about the properties values, it's only role is to reference a bunch of
properties). Here's how I would see it:
<project ...>
<!-- Declares properties directly belonging to a propertyset.
The properties are available as if they had been declared
at the top level. -->
<propertyset id="ps1">
<property name="p1" value="x" />
<property name="p2" value="y" />
</propertyset>
<property name="p3" value="z" />
<!-- Can nest property sets.
Alternate way to had a property to a property set. -->
<propertyset id="ps2">
<propertyset refid="ps1" />
<propertyref name="p3" value="y" />
</propertyset>
<!-- This ones actually debatable... Might be better to only
be able to inject all the properties of a properties file
inside a propertyset by declaring it inside a <propertyset>
element? Or <propertyfile> be used instead??? -->
<property file="somefile.properties"
propertysetrefs="ps1, ps2" />
<!-- Various uses of this set of properties -->
<target ...>
<java ...>
<propertyset refid="ps2" />
</java>
</target>
<target ...>
<junit ...>
<propertyset refid="ps2" />
</java>
</target>
<target ...>
<ant ... inheritAll="false">
<property name="p1" value="XXX" />
<propertyset refid="ps2" />
</java>
</target>
</project>
Properties are oblivious to whether they belong to 0, 1, many propertysets.
Propertysets can overlap.
Explicitly declared <property>s in <ant> would override the one referenced
in the property set (in the child Project), but not in <junit>/<java>,
respecting normal property override rules.
This would solve the <ant inheritAll="false"> issue discussed here, and
would make my build file really clean!
Can someone please tell me why this shouldn't be in ANT???? --DD
-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Holt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 8:48 PM
To: Ant Users List
Subject: Re: Property element of ant task needs an "if"
--- Scott Ellsworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As an alternative, if we had a nested "inheritproperty" element that
> forwarded just the property named, I could accomplish this end.
But that wouldn't really be the same as your proposed if/unless addition,
would it? If it's just passing the named property, then it's not allowing
for it to take on a new value, as it did in your if/unless example, where
you explicitly set the value to "orange". Also, you should keep in mind,
when dealing with this stuff, that there's the whole
anything-defined-on-the-command-line thing...
If you are going to try and do an <inheritproperty> element, you may want
to consider adding a <propertyset> datatype, so you wouldn't have to list
all the same properties to pass every time.
In the meantime, you can always just fall back on the <if> task:
<target name="juice">
<if>
<isset property="juice"/>
<then>
<ant antfile="blend.xml" target="blendit" inheritall="false">
<property name="juice" value="orange"/>
</ant>
</then>
<else>
<ant antfile="blend.xml" target="blendit" inheritall="false"/>
</else>
</if>
</target>
A bit long-winded, but it does get you there.
Diane
=====
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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