Using Ant to automate tasks
To support using Apache Ant with Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications running on the application server, the product provides a copy of the Ant tool and a set of Ant tasks that extend the capabilities of Ant to include product-specific functions. Ant has become a very popular tool among Java programmers.
About this task
Avoid trouble:
- Calling the WebSphere_Ant (WsAnt) scripts outside of the ws_ant launcher is not supported or recommended.
- When you invoke the Ant tool, do not pass empty strings in place of command arguments in ant
script. The script will not work in the wsadmin environment. The <arg value> cannot be an empty
string, such as shown in the following
example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project name="proj" default="main"> <taskdef name="wsadmin" classname="com.ibm.websphere.ant.tasks.WsAdmin"/> <target name="main"> <wsadmin,conntype="NONE" lang="jython" failonerror="true" script="&(basedir)/script.ph"> <arg value="blah" /> <arg value="" /> </wsadmin> <!-- manaeapp action="blah" variation-number="0" --> </target> </project>
- In general, for ws_ant.sh scripts, use single quote for strings containing special characters:
- For a string containing a single quote or a double quote, use the other character to quote the
string. For example, if you specify
bin/ws_ant.sh -f ant.xml -Dsystem.property='"a quoted String"'
, the property is set to "a quoted string". Similarly, if you specifybin/ws_ant.sh -f ant.xml -Dsystem.peoperty="'a quoted string'"
, the property is set to 'a quoted string'.You cannot include both single and double quotes in the same string.
- For a string containing a back quote, use a single quotes surrounding the string and escape the
back quote with backslash. For example, if you specify
bin/ws_ant.sh -f ant.xml -Dsystem.property='\`a quoted string\`'
, the property is set to `a quoted string`. - For a string containing a backslash, surround the string with single quotes and escape it with a
backslash. For example, if you specify
bin/ws_ant.sh -f ant.xml -Dsystem.property='c:\\Program Files\\IBM'
. the property is set to c:\Program Files\IBM. - For a string containing a dollar sign, surround the string with single quotes and escape it with
a backslash. For example, if you specify
bin/ws_ant.sh -f ant.xml -Dsystem.property='\$3.99'
, the property is set to $3.99.
- For a string containing a single quote or a double quote, use the other character to quote the
string. For example, if you specify
By combining the following tasks with those provided by Ant, you can create build scripts
that compile, package, install, and test your application on the application server:
- Install and uninstall applications
- Start and stop servers in a base configuration
- Run administrative scripts or commands
- Run the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) deployment tool for EJB 1.x or 2.x modules
- Run the JavaServer Pages (JSP) file precompilation tool
For more detailed information about Ant, refer to the Apache organization website.