The attached html file now hopefully provides more usable installation instructions. My wysiwyg editor had left the html source of the previous version in a very bad state, so I had to reformatted it. Therefore I have attached the complete file instead of a patch. The installation section has changed completely, the other sections are nearly unchanged (except some typos).
Wolf Glenn McAllister wrote: > You are assuming that the optional/ide/VAJ*.class files are going to be in > ant.jar. They will only exist (for the immediate future anyway) in > optional.jar, and thats only if you or I or some other kind soul > contributes it when a release is built. Otherwise, the only way to build > those classes is to import them into the IDE. > > So yes, you are right that in a release build, it will probably work pretty > closely with what you are describing. But in any sort of development > situation these extra steps are necessary. > > The default.ini file - don't require the user to write anything themselves > if they don't have to. I'd leave it alone and just fix up the docs.Title: Ant VisualAge for Java Tool Integration
Ant PlugIn for VisualAge for Java
by- Wolf Siberski ( [EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Christoph Wilhelms ( [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Table of Contents
Introduction
Visual Age for Java is a great Java IDE, but it lacks decent build support for creating deliveries. On the other hand, Ant supports the build process very good, but is (at least at the moment) command line based. So we decided to write a small visual Ant frontend to make running Ant from VAJ possible. We use the Tool API to integrate Ant in VisualAge for Java. In combination with the VAJ targets (vajload, vajexport, vajimport) you can load defined defined versions of projects into your workspace, export the source code, compile it with an external compiler and build a jar without leaving the IDE. Of course compile messages are viewed in a logging window. Concluding: This tool provides a comfortable deployment VAJ has not (out of the box)!Installation
At the moment the installation has it's rough edges. If something described below doesn't work for You, it's probably not Your fault but incomplete/wrong instructions. In this case, please contact one of the authors.We assume C:\IBMVJava as VAJ install directory. If You have installed it elsewhere, adapt the pathes below. Execute following steps to get the PlugIn up and running:
- import the Ant sources into VAJ.
- import an appropriate XML parser to VAJ (we use Xerces 1.2.0 and are happy with it). Unfortunately the XML parser delivered with VAJ (in the project 'IBM XML Parser for Java') doesn't work with Ant. You have to remove that project (temporarily) from the workspace before importing another XML implementation.
- Create the directory C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant.
- export the Ant and XML parser class files into this directory. Be sure to select class files and resources. Sources don't have to be exported. Some optional tasks have errors and can't be exported when You don't have the necessary packages in Your workspace (e.g. junit task, ejbc task). If You need this tasks either import these packages into VAJ, too, or copy the .class files directly from the binary distribution
- copy default.ini (in jakarta-ant\src\...\taskdefs\optional\ide) to C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\default.ini.
- if you want to access this help from the Workbench, create the directory C:\IBMVJava\ide\tools\org-apache-tools-ant\doc and copy the files VAJAntTool.html, toolmenu.gif and anttool1.gif to it.
- VAJ has to be restarted to recognize the new tool.
- Now if You open the context menu of a project, You should see the entry 'Ant Build' in the Tools submenu (see Usage).
- Make sure the tool works as expected. Now You can remove Ant and the imported XML parser from Your workspace (and optionally add the IBM parser again).
Usage
Beeing sure the tool is installed correctly and your Ant build file is configured, it is really easy to use.Go to your Workbench, select the project you want to deploy and open its context menu. In the submenu Tools you should find the new entry Ant Build. Klick it to start the tool!
- A menubar with some options described later
- The name of your selected VAJ project
- An entry field for the Ant XML buildfile with a browse [...] button. The full qualified filename, including the directory is needed here.
- A list with tasks specified in the buildfile. Until your first save of the build info (described later), this list will be empty. When loading a build file by the Reload Project button, this list is filled with all tasks which have a description attribute. The task you select in this list will be executed when pressing the Execute Task button.
- A pulldown box for specifying the log level.
- Three buttons. Two of them I have already described and the third one is just the Close button to exit our small tool!
If you have closed the log window accidentally, it can be reopened with the Log item in the File menu, and if you want to know who developed this, just select About in the Help menu.
Frequently Asked Questions
F: I want to load, export and build more then one Visual Age project to
one jar! How to?
A: The VA tasks are able to load and export several Projects all at
once. You can choose whatever project you like for storing the tool
information, it doesn't really matter.
