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| <title>Editing Ant buildfiles</title> |
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| <h1>Editing Ant buildfiles</h1> |
| <p class="Para">Because Ant buildfiles are simple text files, any text editor |
| can be used to edit them. But there are several advantages to using the Eclipse |
| Ant editor, including syntax coloring, content assist, navigation, occurrence marking and an outline view. To |
| get familiar with the Eclipse <b><a href="../reference/ref-anteditor.htm">Ant editor</a></b>, create a simple Ant buildfile using |
| this editor.</p> |
| <ol> |
| <li>Create an Ant buildfile called <code>HelloWorld.xml</code>.</li> |
| <li>Open the <b><a href="../reference/ref-anteditor.htm">Ant editor</a></b> on the file by selecting <b>Open With > Ant Editor</b> |
| from the file's context menu. <br> |
| <strong>Note:</strong> The default editor for a <code>.xml</code> file is a simple text |
| editor until it has buildfile content - which can be changed on the <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.preferences(preferencePageId=org.eclipse.ui.preferencePages.FileEditors)")'> |
| <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="Opens the File Associations preference page"><b>General > Editors >File Associations</b></a> preference page.</li> |
| <li>Enter the following content in the editor: |
| <pre> |
| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
| <project name="Hello World" default="Hello" basedir="."> |
| <property name="HelloText" value="Hello"/> |
| <target name="Hello"> |
| <echo>${HelloText}</echo> |
| </target> |
| </project> |
| </pre> |
| <p><img src="../images/first_anteditor.png" alt="HelloWorld.xml file content" border="0" ></p> |
| </li> |
| <li>Notice the syntax coloring for property values.</li> |
| <li>Begin to enter a second target by typing <code><tar</code>, then hit <strong>Ctrl-Space</strong> |
| to activate content assist. A list of valid completions is presented. Select the <code><target></code> completion and |
| notice that the editor inserts both the opening and closing tags and leaves |
| the cursor positioned to enter attributes for this tag.</li> |
| <li>Name this target <code>World</code>.</li> |
| <li>Enter an <code>echo</code> task for this target similar to that for the Hello target, |
| but change the text to <code>${WorldText}</code>.</li> |
| <li>Add a dependency on the <code>World</code> target from the <code>Hello</code> target. Place the cursor after the definition of the name attribute, hit <strong>Ctrl-Space</strong> |
| and select the <code>depends</code> attribute completion. Hit <strong>Ctrl-Space</strong> again to get the completion for the other target <code>World</code> in the buildfile.</li> |
| <li>Save the buildfile contents.</li> |
| <li>The full content will now be: |
| <pre> |
| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
| <project name="Hello World" default="Hello" basedir="."> |
| <property name="HelloText" value="Hello"/> |
| <property name="WorldText" value="World"/> |
| <target name="Hello"> |
| <echo>${HelloText}</echo> |
| </target> |
| |
| <target name="World"> |
| <echo>${WorldText}</echo> |
| </target> |
| </project> |
| </pre> |
| |
| </li> |
| <li>Save the changes to <code>HelloWorld.xml</code>.</li> |
| <li>Make the <b><a href="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.jdt.doc.user/reference/views/ref-view-outline.htm">Outline view</a></b> visible and notice that there are entries for each |
| property and each target. In addition, each task under a target has an entry.<br><br> |
| <img src="../images/outline_hello.png" alt="Outline view for an Ant buildfile" border="0" > |
| <br><br></li> |
| <li>Clicking on an entry in the <b><a href="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.jdt.doc.user/reference/views/ref-view-outline.htm">Outline view</a></b> will scroll the editor to that |
| entry. In addition, when the <b><a href="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.jdt.doc.user/reference/views/ref-view-outline.htm">Outline view</a></b> has focus, typing a character will |
| move the selection in the view to the next visible entry beginning with that character.</li> |
| <li>Position the cursor just past the end of one of the <code><target></code> tags, |
| type <code><tar</code>, then hit <b>Ctrl-Space</b> to activate content assist. Notice that |
| now the only valid completions are the <code></target></code> and the <code>tar</code> tag. This is because the Ant editor |
| knows that nested targets are not allowed.<br><br> |
| <img src="../images/ant_tar_assist.png" alt="Code assist in Ant editor" border="0"> |
| <br></li> |
| <li>Close the editor and do not save changes.</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <h3 class="related">Related tasks</h3> |
| <a href="qs-82_create.htm">Creating Ant buildfiles</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-84_run_ant.htm">Running Ant buildfiles</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-85_ant_configs.htm">Saving & Reusing Ant options</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-84_run_ant.htm">Running Ant buildfiles</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-93_project_builder.htm">Creating a project builder Ant buildfile</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-92_project_builders.htm">Ant buildfiles as project builders</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-94_run_pj.htm">Executing project builders</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-95_external_tools.htm">External tools</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-96_non_ant_pjs.htm">Non-Ant project builders</a><br> |
| <a href="qs-97_standalone_ets.htm">Stand-alone external tools</a> |
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