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Higgins2Ant
{{#eclipseproject:technology.higgins}}
Contents
Introduction
higgins2ant is an Eclipse plug-in that the Higgins project uses. It generates dependencies.xml file using information about particular project from Eclipse IDE. This information includes classpath information and plugin dependency information from either plugin.xml or manifest. In some cases it could be even more complex - only Eclipse IDE could gather all required classpath information correctly.
Prerequisites
A number of prerequisites need to be installed on the build machine, as follows:
- J2SE 1.4.2
- Eclipse version 3.2 of higher
- Ant version 1.6.5 or higher
General Information
build.xml
The build.xml file is an Ant script that is created by the higgins2ant to take your java project/plug-in/feature components and combine them into a deployable format. This file compiles and archives your plug-in source code into a single JAR file.
When ant file is created the directory is scaned to find other xml-files. And, if in any of these files the xml processing instrucion <?eclipse.ant.import?>
was found, the targets of that xml-file will included into the ant build file.
Java project targets
There are targets in java project build.xml file:
-
build
(default) builds the source code of the project with subprojects. Targets, which depends on this target, will createbuild
,build/bin
,build/lib
andbuild/doc
directories. To these directories the files of subprojects will copied, because Eclipse's IDE targets replaces ant build files (in subprojects) onto Eclipse's IDE build files. -
jar
jars a set of project's files. It creates inbuild/bin
folder jar file withprojectName_version.jar
file name. -
javadoc
creates javadoc for the project. It generates inbuild/bin
folder code documentation using the javadoc tool. -
clean
cleans build folder of the project -
copy.libs
copies all project required libraries to user defined dir -
copy.all.jars
copies all JARs to user defined dir -
cleanall
cleans build folders of dependency projects -
fetch.dependencies
fetches the dependencies of projects and subprojects
Plug-in project targets
Into the plug-in project build.xml file following targets were added:
-
plugin
builds the plug-in
Feature project targets
There are targets in feature project build.xml file:
-
feature
(default) builds feature project with features and projects which it includs -
fetch.dependencies
fetches the dependencies of projects and subprojects
project.psf and projectWithDeps.psf
Team Project Sets that are stored in the workspace can now be imported directly using the Import Project Set operation available in the context menu of any *.psf file. Higgins2ant automatically generates project.psf and projectWithDeps.psf files.
Build scripts use project.xml file with the structure below as generated by Eclipse IDE.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <psf version="2.0"> <provider id="org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.svnnature"> <project reference="0.9.3,https://dev.eclipse.org/svnroot/technology/org.eclipse.higgins/trunk/plugins/org.eclipse.higgins.cache.api,org.eclipse.higgins.cache.api"/> </provider> </psf>
dependencies.xml
dependencies.xml provides the build process with information on required projects and/or libraries.
Build scripts use dependencies.xml file with the structure below as generated by Eclipse IDE.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <dependencies id="org.eclipse.higgins.icard.provider.cardspace.common"> <!-- list of projects that are required --> <higginsProjects> <project id="org.eclipse.higgins.registry"/> <project id="org.eclipse.higgins.icard"/> </higginsProjects> <!-- libs that should be downloaded to the project. can be multiple for different locations --> <remoteLibs location="lib"> <library id="commons-logging-1.1.jar"/> <library id="serializer.jar"/> <library id="xalan.jar"/> <library id="xercesImpl.jar"/> <library id="xmlsec-1.4.0.jar"/> </remoteLibs> </dependencies>
Setup
With the prerequisites installed, follow these steps to setup your environment:
- Add the jre/bin directory of the installed JDK to your PATH environment variable.
- Add the ant/bin directory of the installed Ant to your PATH environment variable.
At last, you must install higgins2ant plugin. It can be installed by 2 ways:
- setup locally
- setup on-line
Setup locally
Before setup locally, you must download higgins2ant.update.zip on local machine.
To Setup locally, follow the instructions below:
- select (in main menu) Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install...
- in window "Install/Update" select Search for new features to install -> Next
- select New Local Site... (New Archived Site... if site archived) and choose folder (.zip or .jar file), where your local site places
- OK
- Finish
- in window "Updates" select Higgins Ant Files Generator Feature {installed version} in the treeview of features
- Next
- read license, if you accept the terms in the license agreements, select Next
- Finish
- in window "Verification" select Install or Install All
- Yes
Setup on-line
To Setup on-line, follow the instructions below:
- select (in main menu) Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install...
- in window "Install/Update" select Search for new features to install -> Next
- select New Remote Site... and input Name (ex. "Higgins2ant Update Site") and URL (must be http://download.eclipse.org/technology/higgins/higgins2ant/)
- OK
- Finish
- in window "Updates" select Higgins Ant Files Generator Feature {installed version} in the treeview of features
- Next
- read license, if you accept the terms in the license agreements, select Next
- Finish
- in window "Verification" select Install or Install All
- Yes
Generate files
To generate, Select (from menu) Export -> (General) Higgins Buildfiles -> check projects (for which you wish to create the dependencies file and verify that name of dependencies XML document is dependencies.xml) -> Finish.
Run build files
To build any project with build.xml, follow the instructions below:
-
cd yourproject
-
ant [params]
Where params can use for following types of projects:
- for java/feature project (default):
ant
- for plugin project (must have parameter 'plugin'):
ant plugin
Uninstall
To uninstall the Higgins2Ant plug-in, follow the instructions below:
- select (in main menu) Help -> Software Updates -> Manager Configuration
- in window "Product Configuration" select Higgins Ant Files Generator Feature {installed version} in the treeview of features
- right click -> Uninstall
- OK
- Yes