CodeIgniter

Ant Scripting

Topic

• What is Ant?• Why use Ant?• How can we use Ant?• How to stream development with Ant?

What Is Ant?

• Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like make, without make's wrinkles.

• Ant is different. Instead of a model where it is extended with shell-based commands, Ant is extended using Java classes. Instead of writing shell commands, the configuration files are XML-based, calling out a target tree where various tasks get executed. Each task is run by an object that implements a particular Task interface.

So If Ant is Java why do we want to use it for PHP

• Well Ideally Ant was used to stream line build and compilation with Java in response to Make.

• With the way Ant is, it can be used in any automation we want as long as all the requirements used in the automation are already installed– We can’t use something we don’t have ;-)

Installing Ant

• Ant can be downloaded from: http://ant.apache.org

• Most Current IDE come with Ant Pre-installed– My Personal Preference NETBEANS IDE– Other’s like Eclipse …. (WHY????)

• MAC OS ant is pre-installed, UBUNTU also, but always update ;-) …

Ant Task… huh?

• Ant has a ton of task both built in and downloadable.

• Ant Task are “actions” to be done in the Ant Script.

Ant Task Buckets:

Archive TasksAudit/Coverage TasksCompile TasksDeployment TasksDocumentation TasksEJB TasksExecution TasksFile TasksJava2 Extensions Tasks

Logging TasksMail TasksMiscellaneous TasksPre-process TasksProperty TasksRemote TasksSCM TasksTesting Tasks

The Ant Build File

<!-- this is an ant script to build the project and information -->

<project name=”Demo" default="freshBuild" basedir=".">

<description> This is the ant script to build demo this has the

ability to clean the build, create a Code Report, Run Unit Tests and Build Documentation

</description>

Ant Properties…• <property name="docs" location="docs" />• <property name="applicationDocs" location="${docs}/application"/>• <property name="libraryDocs" location="${docs}/library" />• <property name="reports" location="reports"/>• <property name="sniffer" location="${reports}/sniffer" />• <property name="applicationReports" location="${reports}/application" />• <property name="libraryReports" location="${reports}/library" />• <property name="build" location="build" />• <property name="tests" location="tests" />

Ant Cleaning…• <!-- this will create a clean working environment -->• <target name="clean">• <echo message="Clearing the folders"/>• <delete dir="${applicationDocs}"/>• <delete dir="${libraryDocs}" />• <delete dir="${reports}" />• <delete dir="${build}" />

• <echo message="Creating the folders" />• <mkdir dir="${applicationDocs}" />• <mkdir dir="${libraryDocs}" />• <mkdir dir="${reports}" />• <mkdir dir="${sniffer}" />• <mkdir dir="${applicationReports}" />• <mkdir dir="${libraryReports}" />• <mkdir dir="${build}" />• </target>

Ant Clean Cont….

• <target name="cleanProject">• <echo message="Clearing the folders"/>• <delete dir="${applicationDocs}"/>• <delete dir="${libraryDocs}" />• <delete dir="${reports}" />• <delete dir="${build}" />• </target>

Ant Code Sniffing…• <!-- code sniffer -->• <target name="codeSniff">• <echo message="Started Sniffing code" />

• <echo message="Sniffing Library" />• <exec executable="phpcs" output="${sniffer}/library.sniffer.txt">• <arg value="${NoteLib}"/>• <arg value="--standard=ZEND"/>• <arg value="--report=full" />• <arg value="-n"/>• </exec>

• <echo message="Sniffing Application" />• <exec executable="phpcs" output="${sniffer}/application.sniffer.txt">• <arg value="${application}" />• <arg value="--standard=ZEND" />• <arg value="--report=full" />• <arg value="-n" />• </exec>

• <echo message="Finished Sniffing the Code" />• </target>

Ant Documenting …• <!-- PHP DOCUMENTATION -->• <target name="document">• <echo message="Started Documenting the code" />

• <echo message="Documenting the Application" />• <exec executable="phpdoc" output="${docs}/application.doc.result.txt">• <arg line="• --target ${applicationDocs}• --directory ${application}• --title 'Note In A Bottle Application Documentation'• --undocumentedelements on• -i *.phtml• --defaultpackagename 'NoteInBottleApp'• "/>• </exec>

Ant Documenting cont…• <echo message="Documenting the Application's Library" />• <exec executable="phpdoc" output="${docs}/application.doc.result.txt">• <arg line="• --target ${libraryDocs}• --directory ${NoteLib}• --title 'Note In A Bottle Library Documentation'• --undocumentedelements on• --defaultpackagename 'NoteInBottle'• "/>• </exec>

• <echo message="Finished Documenting the code" />• </target>

Ant Fresh Build….

• <target name="freshBuild" depends="clean, codeSniff, unitTesting, document”>

• </target>

Ant Copy to Server…

• <target name="copyToTestServer">• <exec executable="cp" output="${docs}/cp.result.txt">• <arg line="• -R• /Users/albertrosa/Sites/Demo/

/Volumes/www/Demo/• "/>• </exec>

• <echo message="copied"/>• </target>

UMMM…. Ok but how does it work…

• So you see how the ant xml file looks, you know the buckets that are included with Ant and you have an idea of how you want your build to go …. SO how do you use it?

• Simple… in your Terminal / command prompt / console navigate to the build file ohh wait I didn’t tell you where the build file should go huh…. Well I always place it at the root of the site so all my paths are relative to that root.

But really now how to build it….

• Once you have navigated to the desired location all that is left to do is run the command as follows

ant <target name>

Yep that’s all … so each target is an “task” you can do. But recall the freshBuild target .. That had depends as an attribute. Well those depends are all ran when you execute “ant freshBuild”

Basic errors most commonly found

• Ant depends orders – if some targets need something to happen first that should happen before that task is executed

• You are using a ant task that isn’t installed• You action is producing an error and causes

the execution to terminate• You run out of memory :-D rare but possible

on many large scale projects.

THANKS

• Thanks go to ROKKAN for providing us with the Conference space.

General Info

• My Email: albert@albert-rosa.com• AIM: albertrosa2000• Meetup: www.meetup.com/codeigniter/• Rokkan: www.rokkan.com

Sources

• http://ant.apache.org/