Hi,
It would be useful, if "ant -p" not just found all targets and wrote the
targets containing descriptions, but also allowed properties to be read and
properties within target-descriptions to be expanded.
-----
Example: "Near identical" build-files can share a lot of targets and
target-implementations (using e.g. "import" to put them together). These files
may have the same - or nearly the same - targets like "build", "clean",
"deploy", "all" - and when "ant -p" is invoked, the descriptive text should be
the same, because the targets always have the same responsibility.
To ensure that different build files have the same target-descriptions (and
that these can be changed in a single place) a construction of the kind -
<property
file="targetDescription.prop"
prefix="target.description."
/>
<target
name="all"
description="${target.description.all}"
>
...
</target>
- is desirable!! But - as far as I can tell - the "description"-attributes are
treated as static text (1.6B2).
With the new "import" task added, a behaviour allowing properties within
target-descriptions is straight ahead, I think.
A - perhaps - simple solution could be to evaluate all "property" elements and
expand target-descriptions.
In the extreme, "ant -p" could result in all the same evaluations as is usually
performed when trying to invoke a target, but without invoking any target, but
just expand target-descriptions. -Then all properties set by global elements
outside targets ("<property>", "<xmlproperty>" or any kind of custom-tasks...)
should be accessible, one should think.
-----
Please consider if properties within target-descriptions can be made possible.
Regards,
Morten Sabroe Mortensen
