# Ant PlugIn for VisualAge for Java

by

- Wolf Siberski ( wolf.siberski@tui.de)
- Christoph Wilhelms ( christoph.wilhelms@tui.de)

Version 1.0 - 2000/11/09

## Table of Contents

- Introduction
- Installation
- Usage
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Visual Age Versions

## Introduction

Visual Age for Java is a great Java IDE, but it lacks decent build support for creating deliveries. On the other hand, Ant supports the build process very good, but is (at least at the moment) command line based. So we decided to write a small visual Ant frontend to make running Ant from VAJ possible. We use the Tool API to integrate Ant in VisualAge for Java. In combination with the VAJ targets (vajload, vajexport, vajimport) you can load defined defined versions of projects into your workspace, export the source code, compile it with an external compiler and build a jar without leaving the IDE. Of course compile messages are viewed in a logging window. Concluding: This tool provides a comfortable deployment VAJ has not (out of the box)!

## Installation

At the moment the installation has it's rough edges. If something described below doesn't work for You, it's probably not Your fault but incomplete/wrong instructions. In this case, please contact one of the authors.
We assume C:\IBMVJava as VAJ install directory. If You have installed it elsewhere, adapt the pathes below. Execute following steps to get the PlugIn up and running:

- import the Ant sources into VAJ.
- import an appropriate XML parser to VAJ (we use Xerces 1.2.0 and are happy with it). Unfortunately the XML parser delivered with VAJ (in the project 'IBM XML Parser for Java') doesn't work with Ant. You have to remove that project (temporarily) from the workspace before importing another XML implementation.
- Create the directory C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant.
- export the Ant and XML parser class files into this directory. Be sure to select class files and resources. Sources don't have to be exported. Some optional tasks have errors and can't be exported when You don't have the necessary packages in Your workspace (e.g. junit task, ejbc task). If You need this tasks either import these packages into VAJ, too, or copy the .class files directly from the binary distribution
- copy default.ini (in jakarta-ant\src\...\taskdefs\optional\ide) to C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\default.ini.
- if you want to access this help from the Workbench, create the directory C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\doc and copy the files VAJAntTool.html, toolmenu.gif and anttool1.gif to it.
- VAJ has to be restarted to recognize the new tool.
- Now if You open the context menu of a project, You should see the entry 'Ant Build' in the Tools submenu (see Usage).
- Make sure the tool works as expected. Now You can remove Ant and the imported XML parser from Your workspace (and optionally add the IBM parser again).

## Usage

Beeing sure the tool is installed correctly and your Ant build file is configured, it is really easy to use.
Go to your Workbench, select the project you want to deploy and open its context menu. In the submenu Tools you should find the new entry Ant Build. Klick it to start the tool!

After a short time this frame should pop up:

This frame contains the following:

- A menubar with some options described later
- The name of your selected VAJ project
- An entry field for the Ant XML buildfile with a browse [...] button. The full qualified filename, including the directory is needed here.
- A list with tasks specified in the buildfile. Until your first save of the build info (described later), this list will be empty. When loading a build file by the Reload Project button, this list is filled with all tasks which have a description attribute. The task you select in this list will be executed when pressing the Execute Task button.
- A pulldown box for specifying the log level.
- Three buttons. Two of them I have already described and the third one is just the Close button to exit our small tool!

After you have set up your buildprocess you might find it useful to save the data you've just entered, so we implemented an option to save it to the repository into your selected project. Make sure that you have an open edition of your project before selecting Save BuildInfo To Repository from the File menu. Now your information is saved to this edition of your project and will be loaded automatically the next time you start Ant Build.
If you have closed the log window accidentally, it can be reopened with the Log item in the File menu, and if you want to know who developed this, just select About in the Help menu.

## Frequently Asked Questions

F: I want to load, export and build more then one Visual Age project to one jar! How to?
A: The VA tasks are able to load and export several Projects all at once. You can choose whatever project you like for storing the tool information, it doesn't really matter.

## VisualAge for Java Versions

This tool integration has been tested with versions 3.02 and 3.5 of VisualAge for Java. It should run with the 2.x Versions, too, but we didn't try. The graphical user interface is build with AWT so it is JDK independent by now!

Copyright © 2000 Apache Software Foundation. All rights Reserved.