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Building the Getting Started Application Using Ant

Now the example Web application is ready to build.

This release of the Java Web Services Developer Pack includes Ant, a make tool that is portable across platforms, and which is developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org). Documentation for the Ant tool can be found in the file index.html from the <JWSDP_HOME>/docs/ant/ directory of your Java WSDP installation.

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Note: It is critical that your PATH variable includes the PATH to the bin directory of the Java WSDP at the front of the PATH. If not, many of the Ant commands will not work because the version of Ant shipped with the Java WSDP sets the jwsdp.home environment variable and other versions of Ant will not.

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This example uses the Ant tool to manage the compilation of our Java source code files and creation of the deployment hierarchy. Ant operates under the control of a build file, normally called build.xml, that defines the processing steps required. This file is stored in the top-level directory of your source code hierarchy.

Like a Makefile, the build.xml file provides several targets that support optional development activities (such as erasing the deployment home directory so you can build your project from scratch). This build file includes targets for compiling the application, installing the application on a running server, reloading the modified application onto the running server, and removing old copies of the application to regenerate their content.

When we use the build.xml file in this example application to compile the source files, a temporary /build directory is created beneath the root. This directory contains an exact image of the binary distribution for your Web application. This directory is deleted and recreated as needed during development, so don't edit the files in this directory.

Creating the Build and Deploy File for Ant

To use Ant for this example, create the file build.xml in the gs/ directory. The code for this file follows:>

<!-- Setting up the Getting Started example to prepare to 
      build and deploy --> 
<project name="gs-example" default="build" basedir="."> 
  <target name="init"> 
    <tstamp/> 
  </target>

<!-- Configure the context PATH for this application --> 
<property name="example" value="GSApp" /> 
<property name="path" value="/${example}"/>
<property name="build" 
value="${jwsdp.home}/docs/tutorial/examples/${example}/build" 
/>

<!-- Configure properties to access the Manager application --
> <property name="url" value="http://localhost:8080/manager"/> 
<property file="build.properties"/>
<property file="${user.home}/build.properties"/>

<!-- Configure custom Ant tasks for the Manager application -->

<path id="classpath">
  <fileset dir="${jwsdp.home}/common/lib"> 
    <include name="*.jar"/>
  </fileset>
</path> 
<taskdef name="install"
      classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask" />
<taskdef name="reload" 
      classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask" />
<taskdef name="remove" 
      classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.RemoveTask"/>

<target name="prepare" depends="init" description="Create
      build directories.">
  <mkdir dir="${build}" />
  <mkdir dir="${build}/WEB-INF" /> 
  <mkdir dir="${build}/WEB-INF/classes" />
</target>

<!-- Executable Targets -->

<target name="install" description="Install Web application"
    depends="build">
  <install url="${url}" username="${username}" 
      password="${password}" path="${path}" 
war="file:${build}"/> 
</target>

<target name="reload" description="Reload Web application"
      depends="build">
  <reload url="${url}" username="${username}" 
      password="${password}" path="${path}"/>
</target>

<target name="remove" description="Remove Web application"> 
<remove url="${url}" username="${username}" 
      password="${password}" path="${path}"/>
</target>

<target name="build" depends="prepare" description="Compile
      app Java files and copy HTML and JSP pages" >
  <javac srcdir="src" destdir="${build}/WEB-INF/classes"> 
    <include name="**/*.java" /> 
    <classpath refid="classpath"/> 
  </javac> 
  <copy todir="${build}/WEB-INF"> 
    <fileset dir="web/WEB-INF" >
      <include name="web.xml" />
    </fileset> 
  </copy> 
  <copy todir="${build}"> 
    <fileset dir="web"> 
      <include name="*.html"/> 
      <include name="*.jsp" /> 
      <include name="*.gif" /> 
    </fileset> 
  </copy> 
</target>

</project>
 

Compiling the Source Files

To compile the JavaBeans component (ConverterBean.java), we will use the Ant tool and run the build target in the build.xml file. The steps for doing this follow.

1. In a terminal window, go to the gs/ directory if you are creating the application on your own, or go to the <JWSDP_HOME>/docs/tutorial/examples/gs/ directory if you are compiling the example files downloaded with the tutorial.
2. Type the following command to build the Java files:

     ant build
    
   

   This command compiles the source files for the ConverterBean. It places the resulting class files in the <JWSDP_HOME>/docs/tutorial/examples/GSApp/build/WEB-INF/classes/converterApp directory as specified in the build target in build.xml. It also places the index.jsp file in the GSApp/build directory and places the web.xml file in the GSApp/build/WEB-INF directory. Tomcat allows you to deploy an application in an unpacked directory like this. Deploying the application is discussed in Deploying the Application.

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This tutorial contains information on the 1.0 version of the Java Web Services Developer Pack.

All of the material in The Java Web Services Tutorial is copyright-protected and may not be published in other works without express written permission from Sun Microsystems.