I'm trying to convert a Netbeans 6.9.1 project into a scripted build (without netbeans). Of course, it fails (or I wouldn't be asking for help).
In the failure it says that the org.apache.commons.httpclient package does not exist. (Of course, it worked when we ran the build in Netbeans).
Now I know exactly where the commons-httpclient.jar file is located in my project structure, but I can't seem to tell it to the compiler via the ant build files and the netbeans property files.
Perhaps related to this is when I ran "ant -v" to build my software, it said,
Property lib.mystuff.classpath has not been set. This variable is important, I guess, because
the file nbproject/project.properties uses lib.mystuff.classpath in its definition of javac.classpath, which of course tells the Java compiler where to find the JARs.
So...when moving a Netbeans project to a netbeans-independent scripted build, how can the build script set these properties? Also, how can I ensure that the jar file gets included in the ant build?
I appreciate any help I can get, as I am a Java newbie.
UPDATE AFTER ACCEPTING ANSWER FROM vkraemer:
There are a few best practices for build scripts for production software:
Put everything needed for a build under a single directory tree. (Netbeans = fail)
Put everything in source code control. (I did that)
The first line of the build script should clear all environment variables.
The next section of the build script should explicitly set all environment variables to values which are known to work.
The next part of the build should be able to execute using command-line programs such as javac, ant, cc, etc, and must not depend on firing up an IDE such as Eclipse or Netbeans.
It is a shame that Netbeans makes this hard.
I did a quick look in a Java Application project and found the following...
javac.classpath = ${libs.MyStuff.classpath}
libs.MyStuff.classpath is defined in %HOME%/.netbeans/6.9.1/build.properties.
You may be able to get by doing the following...
ant -Dlibs.MyStuff.classpath=c:\a\b\c.jar
You would need to do more if you have multiple jar files in the MyStuff library that you created in NetBeans.
Related
Part of a project I'm on has a GUI app that is built with Netbeans using the GUI design tools that come in that IDE.
But this is only part of a bigger project, and needs to be built in an environment that does not have Netbeans installed (it happens to be a Gradle-based build on Jenkins). I've gotten builds to (seemingly) work, but keep running into inexplicable run-time errors (i.e., dependencies appear to be met with identical jars on the classpath and so on, but attempts to read resources from the project jar fail.).
From googling around, it looks like this might have something to do with compiling .form files and then including some dependency for the resulting java. (though, the Netbeans build does not add any jars above what our gradle build adds).
So the question is... can this even be done? or does a proper build simply rely on some hidden build-time mojo that's going on in Netbeans?
Yes, you can compile the classes without NetBeans. Just be sure you do not any NetBeans library, like AbsoluteLayout. The .form files are for NetBeans showing you components with Matisse, but all the generated code will be in the .java file.
This question is not limited to lex and yacc, but how can I add a custom script compiler as part of a project? For example, I have the following files in the project:
grammar.y
grammar.l
test.script
The binary 'script_compiler' will be generated using grammar.y and grammar.l compiled by lex, yacc and g++. And then I want to use that generated script_compiler to compile test.script to generate CompiledScript.java. This file should be compiled along with the rest of the java files in the project. This setting is possible with XCode or make, but is it also possible with Eclipse alone? If not, how about together with Maven plugin?
(I might setup the script compiler as a separate project, but it would be nice if they can be put in the same project so that changes to the grammar files can be applied immediately)
Thanks in advance for your help!
You can add a custom "Builder" from the project properties dialog. This can be an ant script (with an optional target) or any other script or executable.
There are also maven plugins for ant and other scripting languages
If you just want to run an external program in Maven this is what you want: http://mojo.codehaus.org/exec-maven-plugin/ -- you can then run Maven targets from your IDE or command line and it should do the right thing either way.
To integrate with the normal compilation bind the plugin to the "generate-sources" phase and add the location where the Java files are generated to the "sourceRoot" option of the exec plugin. That way the compiler will pick them up.
Ideally you generate the code into a folder "target/generated-sources/MY_SCRIPT_NAME". That is the standard location for generated sources in the Maven world and e.g. IntelliJ IDEA will pick up source files inside of that location. Note that this doesn't work if the files are directly in "target/generated-sources".
The other option is to write your own Maven plugin, which is actually quite easy as well. See e.g. https://github.com/peterbecker/maven-code-generator
I want my Ant build to take all Java sources from src/main/*, compile them, and place them inside bin/main/. I also want it to compile src/test/* sources to bin/test/. I wan this behavior because I want to package the binaries into different JARs, and if they all just go to a single bin/ directory it will be impossible* (extremely difficult!) to know which class files belong where.
When I go to configure my build path and then click the Source tab I see an area toward the bottom where it reads Default output folder: and then allows you to browser for its location.
I'm wondering how to create bin/main and bin/test in an existing project without "breaking" Eclipse (it happens). I'm also wondering that if I just have my Ant build make and delete those directories during the clean-n-build process, that Eclipse might not care what the default output is set to. But I can't find any documentation either way.
Thanks in advance for any help here.
In Eclipse, you can only have one output folder per project for your compiled Java files. So you cannot get Eclipse to do the split you want (i.e. compile src/main to bin/main and src/test to bin/test).
You can, if you want, create two Eclipse projects, one main project and one test project, where the test project depends on (and tests) the main project. However, in that case, each project should be in its own directory structure, which is not what you are asking for. But this is a common approach.
Another way, which I would recommend, would be to not mix Ant compilation and Eclipse's compilation. Make the Ant script the way you describe (i. e. compile the main and test directories separately and create two separate jar files). Change the Eclipse compile directory to something different, for instance bin/eclipse. Use the Ant script when making official builds or building for release. Use Eclipse's building only for development/debugging. This way, your two build systems will not get in each other's way and confuse each other.
Hope this answers your question and I understood it correctly. Good luck!
I have a project in eclipse right now that is compiled using ant. I am wondering what eclipse is doing behind the curtains whenever I double click on the jar target of one of this build files.
Is it possible to get the commands that eclipse is executing with ant, as I'd like to setup a shell script that compiles the project. How can I find what commands it is actually executing and what parameters it is passing.
I imagine there are also some variables like classpath, and buildpath that are set, where do I find them as to be easily copied over.
Eclipse comes with its own installation of ant. Is it possible to use that bundled installation of ant to build via command line.
Any help appreciated,
Ted.
One possible way is to look at the process executed by Eclipse when building.
For that, use Process Explorer (if you are on Windows) in order to display the full command line and all its parameter when running that build.
I am currently trying to get my headless pde-build working but I am stuck on a point where I do not know how to continue.
The problem is how to define the related target platform to compile the plugins against.
I have a build.bat with the following call (all in one line!):
java -jar D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-application org.eclipse.ant.core.antRunner
-f D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_20100114\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml
-Dbuilder=c:\pde-build\scripts %*
I tried to create the target eclipse platform from different parts: The eclipse SDK, RCP SDK, Delta Pack, PDE-SDK in all combinations but none of them worked well.
I got the following error:
BUILD FAILED
D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_20100114\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml:18: Cannot fin
d ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts}/build.xml imported from D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_2010011
4\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml
where the variable ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts} does not got resolved. I also tried to give this parameter via the command line but then I got another error regarding missing svn task which is absolutely confusing as this is working with my local eclipse installation referenced.
When I replace the path from d:/target/eclipse to my local eclipse installation the pde build works as expected!
This leads my to the point that the configuration of the target eclipse is not correct but in the moment I have no idea how to configure this!
My goal is the automate the pde build first on my local site without referencing my local eclipse and later on integrate this building process into our running cruisecontrol instance.
As I saw already another question about defining the target eclipse I would be happy if anyone can contribute hints or facts regarding the problem.
Regards,
Andreas
When performing a headless build, the target can be separate from the eclipse that is actually running the build itself. The problem you had here is that the eclipse that you were using to run the build did not have PDE/Build properly installed.
This is why the ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts} was not set, because PDE/Build was not installed into that eclipse instance, the org.eclipse.pde.build bundle was not resolved and the code that sets this property never got called. Similarly, the necessary ant classpath entries for PDE/Build tasks would not have been set up properly either.
You need the Eclipse with PDE installed inside to run the build, but the target for the build can be separate from this.
In the build.properties file found under -Dbuilder=c:\pde-build\scripts you can set several properties:
baseLocation This is a path to an eclipse that is your target.
buildDirectory This is where the build will actually take place, source is fetched to plugins/ and features/ subfolders, but if there are already binary plugins located here then those become part of the target as well.
pluginPath This is a list of paths (separated with ';' on windows or ':' on linux) containing other locations that should be considered as part of your target. These locations can be several things:
The root of an eclipse-like install with plugins/ and features/ subfolders. This is a good way to provide the delta-pack instead of just unzipping it on top of an eclipse install.
The root of a workspace-like folder, where all subfolders are treated as plugins or features depending on the presence of a manifest or feature.xml.
The root of a bundle or feature, or the jar for a bundle.
If you are doing a p2 build (p2.gathering = true) you can also provide p2 repositories under a ${repoBaseLocation} which will be transformed and placed under ${transformedRepoLocation} and will become part of your target, and the p2 metadata there will get reused during the build.
after some more time of investigation I found out, what I did wrong so far. As I mentioned above defining the target platform is not that easy as copying the SDK and plugins in into one location (as it was in early times of eclipse dev).
The working solution by now is the following: Copying the eclipse SDK into the target location and run this version. Install inside this the neccessary PDE-Tools to enable plugin development. After that, close the IDE and copy the delta pack + the respective svn plugin (I used org.eclipse.pde.build.svn-1.0.1RC2 from sourceforge) into the target platform and you're done.
Now my automated PDE build is running as expected.
Only minor issue now is the following: The result product contains eclipse-specific menu entries which are not there when I ran this from inside my dev-eclipse.
Any hints on that?
I just posted an answer to my question on this kind of topics, may be this can help you:
Plugin product VS Feature product