I thought I was one of those people :) Anyway, the foreach was really just a test case for the TaskContainer concept. Well, it wasn't really a test; it is useful on its own. The ghenghis build has a script section that loops through all the sample subdirs and builds each sample [1]. It is a lot of code, and it seemed to me that it would be much simpler, and easier to understand if it could be re-written with a loop task. In fact I think this was Brad's question in his post (http://www.mail-archive.com/nant-developers@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00 205.html) that started the idea.
The general syntax was pretty straight forward. So I started playing with the idea of a loop. It turned out to be really simple. And I think a coded task version is much better than writing this in a script block every time you want to do it. Besides the whole maintenance and testing issues that arise from putting code in a place that is edited a lot. Right now <foreach/> can iterate over Files, Folders, Lines, or a delimitated string. (http://www.mail-archive.com/nant-developers@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00 341.html) The general syntax is a little clumsy, but I can't think of a better way. <foreach itemtype="Folders" source="c:\" property="folder"> <anyTasks/> </> --The itemtype attribute species on of the Enum values: public enum ItemTypes { None, Files, Folders, DelimString, Lines } --The source species what to work with. It is dependant on the itemtype. --The property attribute specifies the name of the attribute to use. This attribute is used for the duration of the task, and the value is returned to its original. I don't like the itemtype/source separation, but I wanted to keep these all in attributes so it is clear that everything else is a task and get executed. I'm not sure exactly what other uses there are for this looping task than what has already been proposed. The sky is the limit :) Oh... it also works great for counting... <foreach itemtype="DelimString" source="1,2,3" property="number"> <echo message="I can count! I now have ${number}."/> </> (I'm just kidding here, counting is over-rated.) [1] <target name="samples" description="Builds the sample applications" depends="debug"> <script language="C#"> <code><![CDATA[ public static void ScriptMain(Project project) { // Get the samples directory string sourcePath = Path.Combine(project.BaseDirectory, "samples"); // Get all the subdirectories of the samples directory string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(sourcePath); char sep = Path.DirectorySeparatorChar; // Iterate foreach(string dir in dirs) { int idx = dir.LastIndexOf(sep); if(idx >= 0) { // Launch a second NAnt to build the sample System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process(); process.StartInfo.FileName = "nant"; process.StartInfo.Arguments = "-buildfile:" + project.BaseDirectory + "\\Genghis.build2 -D:sample=" + dir.Substring(idx+1) + " mksample"; process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false; process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = project.BaseDirectory; process.Start(); process.WaitForExit(); if(process.ExitCode != 0) throw new BuildException(); } } } ]]></code> </script> </target> > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:nant-developers- > [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Gerry Shaw > Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 10:25 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [nant-dev] Loop Task > > Can you help the slower people in the group by explaining a bit more > about the foreach task. I can see how it could print out all the > properties > > * What do you plan on doing with it? > * What is the syntax for iterating over the containers? > * What containers can you iterate over? properites, folders, files, > tasks, targets?? > > I'm probally missing something obvious but it seems a bit weird. On the > chance that you needed to do something like this why not just drop down > into C# using the <script> task? It would seem to have a lot cleaner > syntax IMO. ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by: Jabber Inc. Don't miss the IM event of the season | Special offer for OSDN members! JabConf 2002, Aug. 20-22, Keystone, CO http://www.jabberconf.com/osdn _______________________________________________ Nant-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers
