Pro Apache Ant Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Ant is one of those "Swiss Army Knife" tools that can take care of a stunning amount of work when it comes to automating your build process.Matthew Moodie does a good job mixing reference and practical information about Ant in his book Pro Apache Ant.

Contents:Introducing Ant; Installing Ant; Using Ant; Examining Ant's Types; Building a Project; Deploying an Application; Running an Application; Testing an Application; Using Ant in Large Projects; Writing Custom Tasks; Extending Ant; Using the Ant API; Index

In Pro Apache Ant, Moodie does a quick intro to the package and shows you how to install it.Once that's done, then you're off on a tour that touches on a wide array of functionality that Ant brings to your development project.The book seems to be a smooth blend of reference material covered in a format that is more geared towards practicality.For instance, the Building A Project chapter sets up an example scenario that would commonly be seen in a programming environment.The structure of the development system is put forth, and then the Ant code is built to show how an Ant script can automate the many manual tasks that would normally be part of the build process.Interspersed throughout the chapter are tables that show the particular command being used, as well as an explanation of all the particular attributes and parameters that can be used with the command.As such, you learn *how* to do something as well as having the tools to extend your use beyond the example.Having the blend of styles makes the book one that will last beyond your learning period.

If you've never worked through build processes in your environment, or if this is your first exposure to a scripting tool like Ant, you may end up proceeding a bit slower than you'd like.While you can learn everything you need from this book, it seemed to me that the reader would probably do better if they had at least a passing familiarity with scripting tools and a Java build process.The intro is quick, but if you're willing to do what's necessary to get the basics down, the book will be invaluable going forward.And if you're looking for something to round out your knowledge of Ant because you use it on a regular basis, then this is a very viable option.Nice job...

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Product Description:
Pro Apache Ant is ideal for Java developers who need to use the leading open source build tool out there for development and project management. It is organized around chronological tasks instead of alphabetical functions, using a sample application throughout the set-up, from calling database scripts to unit testing. Practical examples are used at every stage and each task includes a concrete example. The configuration files are XML based, so there's no need for you to write shell commands . Each task is run by an object that implements a particular task interface. And if you really need to execute a shell command, Ant has an task that allows different commands based on the OS.

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Ant in Action: Covers Ant 1.7 (Manning) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A 500+ page book about a build tool. I guess your initial reaction might be the same as mine. Why would we need so much pages to describe a build tool.

Well, after reading "Ant in Action" I concluded, it doesn't need. The book just described much more than just Ant.

The book consists of three parts. The first part is called "Learning Ant". This is basically the build tool part, which describes the basics of Ant and how to use it. Well actually, in part one it already goes a little further to also include unit testing and already some deployment related information.

The second part is called "Applying Ant" and goes well beyond just describing Ant. Chapter 10 describes working in large projects. Chapter 11talks about managing dependencies and introduces Ivy. Chapter 15 introduces continuous integration and introduces Luntbuild (not sure why the authors not chose to describe CruiseControl, which is absolutely the most used CI tool). Chapter 16 alone would already be a reason to get the book and it talks about automating deployment and introduces a tool called Smartfrog.

The third parts is called "extending ant" and explains how you can extend ant, develop your own tasks and test them using AntUnit. It describes how ant is implemented so that you know how to extend it (and probably how to develop for it further).

When I started my journey through this book, I was a simple Ant user. The authors showed me that there are so much things possible with Ant and also explored the world around Ant. After finishing the book, I felt I have learned so much and it certainly improved my build scripting abilities. An absolute must read.

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Product Description:

This second edition of a Manning bestseller has been revised and re-titled to fit the 'In Action' Series by Steve Loughran, an Ant project committer. Ant in Action introduces Ant and how to use it for test-driven Java application development. Ant itself is moving to v1.7, a major revision, at the end of 2006 so the timing for the book is right. A single application of increasing complexity, followed throughout the book, shows how an application evolves and how to handle the problems of building and testing. Reviewers have praised the book's coverage of large-projects, Ant's advanced features, and the details and depth of the discussion-all unavailable elsewhere. This is a major revision with the second half of the book completely new, including:How to Manage Big projects Library management Enterprise Java Continuous integration Deployment Writing new Ant tasks and datatypes

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