2000-11-29 17:18:22 +00:00
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
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<html>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
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<title>Ant VisualAge for Java Tool Integration</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Ant PlugIn for VisualAge for Java</h1>
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<a name="authors"></a>by
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<ul>
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<li>Wolf Siberski (<a href="mailto:wolf.siberski@tui.de">
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wolf.siberski@tui.de</a>)</li>
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<li>Christoph Wilhelms (<a href="mailto:christoph.wilhelms@tui.de">
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christoph.wilhelms@tui.de</a>)</li>
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</ul>
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Version 1.0 - 2000/11/09<br>
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<hr>
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<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
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<li><a href="#installation">Installation</a></li>
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<li><a href="#usage">Usage</a></li>
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<li><a href="#faq">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
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<li><a href="#va_versions">Visual Age Versions</a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
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Visual Age for Java is a great Java IDE, but it lacks decent build support
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for creating deliveries. On the other hand, Ant supports the build process
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very good, but is (at least at the moment) command line based. So we decided
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to write a small visual Ant frontend to make running Ant from VAJ possible.
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We use the Tool API to integrate Ant in VisualAge for Java. In combination
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with the VAJ targets (vajload, vajexport, vajimport) you can load defined
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defined versions of projects into your workspace, export the source code,
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compile it with an external compiler and build a jar without leaving the
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IDE. Of course compile messages are viewed in a logging window. Concluding:
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This tool provides a comfortable deployment VAJ has not (out of the box)!<br>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="installation"></a>Installation</h2>
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At the moment the installation has it's rough edges. If something described
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below doesn't work for You, it's probably not Your fault but incomplete/wrong
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instructions. In this case, please contact one of the <a href="#authors">
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authors</a>.<br>
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We assume <font face="Courier">C:\IBMVJava</font> as VAJ install directory.
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If you have installed it elsewhere, adapt the paths below. Execute following
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steps to get the PlugIn up and running:
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<ul>
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<li>import the Ant sources into VAJ.</li>
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<li>import an appropriate XML parser to VAJ (we use Xerces 1.2.0 and are
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happy with it). Unfortunately the XML parser delivered with VAJ (in the
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project 'IBM XML Parser for Java') doesn't work with Ant. You have to
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remove that project (temporarily) from the workspace before importing
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another XML implementation.</li>
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<li>Create the directory <font face="Courier">
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C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant</font>.</li>
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<li>export the Ant and XML parser class files into this directory. Be sure
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to select class files and resources. Sources don't have to be exported.
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Some optional tasks have errors and can't be exported when You don't have
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the necessary packages in Your workspace (e.g. junit task, ejbc task).
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If You need this tasks either import these packages into VAJ, too,
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or copy the .class files directly from the binary distribution</li>
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<li>copy <font face="Courier">default.ini</font> (in
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<font face="Courier">jakarta-ant\src\...\taskdefs\optional\ide</font>)
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to <font face="Courier">
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C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\default.ini</font>.</li>
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<li>if you want to access this help from the Workbench, create the
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directory <font face="Courier">
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C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\doc</font> and copy the files
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<font face="Courier">VAJAntTool.html</font>,
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<font face="Courier">toolmenu.gif</font> and
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<font face="Courier">anttool1.gif</font> to it.</li>
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<li>VAJ has to be restarted to recognize the new tool.</li>
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<li>Now if You open the context menu of a project, You should see the entry
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'Ant Build' in the Tools submenu (see <a href="#usage">Usage</a>).</li>
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<li>Make sure the tool works as expected. Now You can remove Ant and the
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imported XML parser from Your workspace (and optionally add the IBM parser
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again).</li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="usage"></a>Usage</h2>
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Being sure the tool is installed correctly and your Ant build file is
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configured, it is really easy to use.<br>
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Go to your Workbench, select the project you want to deploy and open
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its context menu. In the submenu <i>Tools</i> you should find the new
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entry <i>Ant Build</i>. Click it to start the tool!
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<center><p><img src="toolmenu.gif" border="0" height="246" width="393">
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</p></center>
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After a short time this frame should pop up:
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<center><p><img src="anttool1.gif" border="0" height="222" width="389">
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</p></center>
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This frame contains the following:
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<ul>
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<li>A menubar with some options described later</li>
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<li>The name of your selected VAJ project</li>
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<li>An entry field for the Ant XML buildfile with a browse [...] button. The
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full qualified filename, including the directory is needed here.</li>
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<li>A list with tasks specified in the buildfile. Until your first save of
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the build info (described later), this list will be empty. When loading a
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build file by the <i>Reload Project</i> button, this list is filled with
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all tasks which have a description attribute. The task you select in this
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list will be executed when pressing the <i>Execute Task</i> button.</li>
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<li>A pulldown box for specifying the log level.</li>
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<li>Three buttons. Two of them I have already described and the third one
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is just the <i>Close </i>button to exit our small tool!</li>
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</ul>
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After you have set up your buildprocess you might find it useful to save
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the data you've just entered, so we implemented an option to save it to
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the repository into your selected project. Make sure that you have an open
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edition of your project before selecting <i>Save BuildInfo To Repository</i>
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from the <i>File</i> menu. Now your information is saved to this edition
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of your project and will be loaded automatically the next time you start
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<i>Ant Build</i>.<br>
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If you have closed the log window accidentally, it can be reopened with
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the <i>Log</i> item in the <i>File</i> menu, and if you want to know who
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developed this, just select <i>About</i> in the <i>Help</i> menu.
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<br>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="faq"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
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<p>F: I want to load, export and build more then one Visual Age project to
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one jar! How to?<br>
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A: The VA tasks are able to load and export several Projects all at
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once. You can choose whatever project you like for storing the tool
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information, it doesn't really matter.</p>
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<hr>
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<h2><a name="va_versions"></a>VisualAge for Java Versions</h2>
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This tool integration has been tested with versions 3.02 and 3.5 of VisualAge
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for Java. It should run with the 2.x Versions, too, but we didn't try.
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The graphical user interface is build with AWT so it is JDK independent
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by now!<br>
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<hr>
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2001-02-13 12:32:01 +00:00
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<center><p>Copyright © 2000 Apache Software Foundation.
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All rights Reserved.</p></center>
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2000-11-29 17:18:22 +00:00
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</body>
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</html>
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