Apache Ant Tutorial

Apache Ant Tutorial

Apache Ant is a tool developed by the Java language and is provided by the Apache Software Foundation. Apache Ant's configuration file is written in XML and is easy to maintain and write, and the structure is clear.

This tutorial will show you in an easy way how to use Apache ANT to automate the building and deployment process. After completing this tutorial, you will find that you already have the next stage of learning Apache Ant's mid-level expertise.

Applicable people

This tutorial helps beginners understand the basics of Apache Ant and uses it to automatically build and deploy the process.

Learning Prerequisites

For this tutorial, we assume that the reader already has the basic knowledge of software development in Java or other development languages. If you have been exposed to some software build and deployment processes, it will be helpful to learn about this tutorial.

Version information

The demo code in the book is based on the following versions:

Build Tools	Version Information
Apache Ant	Feb, 2017 1.9.9 1.10.1

Introduced

Ant is a cross-platform, Java-language-based component tool for the Apache Foundation. Before we learn more about Apache Ant, let's explain why building tools need to be understood first.

Requirements for building tools

In general, developers spend a lot of time doing general tasks, such as building and deploying, and typically include the following:

• Compiling code
• Encapsulating binary Files
• Deploying binaries on the test server
• Test change
• Copy code from one location to another location

Apache Ant is very useful for automating and simplifying the work above. This is a tool that is built and deployed based on an open operating system that needs to be executed from the command line.

The history of Apache Ant

• Ant was developed by James Duncan Davidson (aka Tomcat's original developer).
• Originally used to build Tomcat, it was part of the release of a tomcat.
• The complexity and many problems of the Apach make toolkit have spawned Apache Ant.
• In 2000, Ant was used as a standalone project. The latest Apache Ant version is the 1.9.4 version of May 2014.

Features of Apache Ant

• Ant is the most complete build and deploy tool based on Java language development.
• Ant is platform agnostic and can handle platform-specific properties such as file separators.
• Ant can also be used to perform platform-specific tasks, such as modifying a file's modification time with the Touch command.
• The Ant script is done with XML. If you already know something about XML, you'll be more comfortable learning Ant.
• Ant specializes in automating repetitive tasks.
• Ant starts with a series of pre-defined tasks.
• ANT provides an interface for developing custom tasks.
• Ant can be easily invoked from the command line, and it integrates well with the free and commercial integrated development environment.

Apache Ant Tutorial