Can eclipse be used to fully replace ant? - eclipse

I don't want to build the files manually with command line,
is it possible for eclipse to do the equivalent for tomcat automatically?

eclipse by default does compile your project automatically. Do you mean to have eclipse deploying to tomcat automatically?
If that is what you would like to do, Eclipse WebTools has support for deploying to servlet container. One example of how to do that is http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-eclipse-tomcat/index.html

If you have a build.xml file in your project root, you can right click on it in eclipse, select Run As -> Ant Build...
From there you can configure how it should run the script just as if you were using ant.

Question title
Can eclipse be used to fully replace ant?
Short answer: Do not compare apples with oranges.
Eclipse IDE (Building is one of its feature). Wiki
Ant Build tool. Wiki
Tomcat Webserver. Wiki

Related

how to create build steps in Eclipse?

I am trying to add build steps in an Eclipse project (Eclipse CDT Version: 3.8.0 on Debian).
For instance, when instructing Eclipse to build it would:
1- Run premake
2- Run make
You get the gist.
There's 0 tutorials on the subject and I looked everywhere... Is it because this feature doesn't exist? That's hard to believe...
There is no tutorial for Eclipse build :D
May be you want to build your project? Correct me if I am wrong.
As I know, Eclipse supports us to use Ant build to build/ execute the build step for projects (not for Eclipse itself) => build.xml
And If you really want to do some things else, i think create a bat file. and then execute it when start Eclipse is a suggestion.

How to build and install an Eclipse plugin using ant

How do I build and install an Eclipse plugin using ant? I want to build a plugin as a zip file and then install the plugin on 32bit or 64bit eclipse. What am I supposed to do here?
Indeed, using PDE/Build to achieve a so-called headless build is difficult, but not impossible.
We are still building our RCP this way.
I recommend reading Paulin's and Sharma's tutorials on the issue.
The Eclipse PDE has its own builder which is built on ant. I'm not sure from your question if you are looking to simply build/export your plugin within eclipse or generate ant build scripts that can be run outside of eclipse. The latter is more difficult. Inside eclipse you can simple go to file -> export -> Plugin-Development -> Deployable plugin and the export wizard will walk you through it, you can select to deploy a zip or exploded directory and then select output location and presto you have your plugin built as a jar that can be dropped into an eclipse instance. If you are looking to use ant outside of eclipse to build you need to go through a series of steps that are complicated to get a 'headless build", if this is what you need to do Google "pde headless" build. I've tried it but gave up. There is also a good book "Building highly modular systems with OSGI/Equinox that has a chapter devoted to this. - Duncan

Does Eclipse ship ant with its own distribution?

First time using Apache Ant (I'm excited and overwhelmed at the same time!) for automating a Java app.
I did not go to the ant website and download ant directly. Rather, I'm using the standard plugin that ships with Eclipse. From Eclipse, I can run test build.xml projects perfectly. But when I go to run ant directly off the command-line, Windows doesn't recognize it as a recognized command.
This leads me to believe that I either do not have ant installed, or I have not configured it properly (at all). If it's not installed, then why do these build.xml scripts work when I fire them inside of Eclipse? Does Eclipse ship with its own distrib of ant that isn't accessible from the cmd line?
And if it's just a config issue, what do I need to do in order to get ant to run a buildscript of my own flavor?
I want to start using Apache Ivy and in order to run the demos I first need ant up and running from the command line.
Thanks for any help or insight :-)
Does Eclipse ship with its own distrib of ant that isn't accessible from the cmd line?
Essentially, yes. Eclipse bundles the core Ant runtime plus its own extensions and integration, but it's private to the Eclipse installation.
If you want to run the builds from outside of Eclipse, you need to download and install the full distribution of Ant.

Where is mvn.exe when using embedded maven 3 in eclipse indigo?

I'm using the Indigo Release of eclipse. When I check Window -> Preferences, Maven -> Installations, it confirms that it's using the Embedded (3.0.2/...) installation of Maven.
I want to be able to run maven commands from the command line (Windows Powershell), but when I type, e.g.,
PS C:\> mvn
no executable is found. I did a search for "mvn.exe" and found no results.
I suppose I could install a stand-alone version of Maven 3 and add that to my PATH, but I'd prefer to be using the same Maven installation for command line tasks as well as IDE (eclipse) tasks.
So, where is the embedded maven's mvn.exe hiding?
The simple answer is, cause it's embedded in Eclipse so you can't call it from console. If you like to do this you have to install Maven yourself.
There is no mvn.exe at all. The Maven distro comes with batch or shell scripts. Eclipse runs an embedded version which is called through an API.
remember, embedded maven is not configured to work out of eclipse environment (and terminal usage is out of STS usage).
we have to install maven.
and also note, there is no "mvn.exe"
follow the following to setup maven to work from terminal.
maven download link is here
download latest maven from here
extract it where ever you want.
i extracted as below (see the bin,boot,conf,... folders are shown below as in the image):
as this maven download is extracted from zip file (it is not setup), you will have to add this extracted path to "PATH" variable in windows environment.
follow this to set environment path:
now "mvn" command must work.
in my case, i use STS (spring tool suite)
and i had to restart STS for "mvn" to work in terminal in sts.
check it out with eclipse.

Running jetty from eclipse

Please let me know how can I configure jetty server to run from eclipse IDE?
Also, suggest me some good plugins for the same. I downloaded jetty launcher but not able create new configuration with it. Please help.
The best way I found to run Jetty from eclipse (and debug, etc.) was this : http://neelzone.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/jetty-and-eclipse-integration/
Basically, you create a java project, put jetty's code in it, create a context file in jetty/contexts that points to your web application, and Run as Java application.
No need for a plugin.
With Eclipse Kepler, I found two plugins, "Eclipse Jetty" and "Run Jetty Run" in the
market place.
I tried "Run Jetty Run" first but couldn't make it work (css file didn't load), but with
"Eclipse Jetty", it worked out of the box for my project.
I have followed the below steps to set up Jetty server in my eclipse:
(1) Download the 'net.sourceforge.eclipsejetty.launcher' jar (plugin) from the below URL:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipse-jetty/
(2) Copy the downloaded jar file to your eclipse 'plugins' folder (Example: C:\eclipse-jee-luna\plugins)
(3) Restart Eclipse
(4) Go to Eclipse Workspace -> Right click on your web project -> Run -> Run Configurations > Jetty Web App > Set the 'WebApp Directory' > Click on Run
After following the above steps, I am able to successfully deploy & run my web project using Jetty Server in Eclipse.
I hope this is helpful and easy to set up.