recommendations for build tool

[ittay.dror]

Hi,

Can anyone please recommend a build tool to build a j2ee based project:
1. have several projects (web, server, common, etc.)
2. easy build file creation (perhaps just one, and using directory
structure to dictate builds to jar,ear,sar,war etc.), multiple
artifacts per project (e.g. server files jar and api files jar).
3. easy dependencies specifications, with recursive dependencies.
4. variant builds (e.g., build an expanded 'ear' or not)
5. fast.

I've looked at maven, jam, savant and buildmagic and can't make up my
mind.

Thanx,
Ittay

 

[Malte]

Hi,

Can anyone please recommend a build tool to build a j2ee based project:
1. have several projects (web, server, common, etc.)
2. easy build file creation (perhaps just one, and using directory
structure to dictate builds to jar,ear,sar,war etc.), multiple
artifacts per project (e.g. server files jar and api files jar).
3. easy dependencies specifications, with recursive dependencies.
4. variant builds (e.g., build an expanded 'ear' or not)
5. fast.

I've looked at maven, jam, savant and buildmagic and can't make up my
mind.

Thanx,
Ittay

I'd use ant

 

[littlewild]

I haven't tried the ones you have mentioned, but Ant works fine for me.
I suggest you to check out XDoclet with Ant. I think they are the most
widely used OSS build tools for Java.

 

[Bryce]

Hi,

Can anyone please recommend a build tool to build a j2ee based project:
1. have several projects (web, server, common, etc.)
2. easy build file creation (perhaps just one, and using directory
structure to dictate builds to jar,ear,sar,war etc.), multiple
artifacts per project (e.g. server files jar and api files jar).
3. easy dependencies specifications, with recursive dependencies.
4. variant builds (e.g., build an expanded 'ear' or not)
5. fast.

I've looked at maven, jam, savant and buildmagic and can't make up my
mind.

Ant?

 

[ittay.dror]

savant, jam and buildmgic are all based on ant.

the problem with ant is that it requires me to role my own dependencies
and bundling targets. i want something that's already working.

 

[PRadyut]

My recommendations will go for netbeans 4.x with in built ant debugger
and integrations with Tomcat 5 and sun j2ee server.


Pradyut
http://pradyut.tk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/d_dom/
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/oop_programming
India

 

[Big Jim]

ant

 

[Jacques-Olivier Haenni]

Hello,

We are currently developping a build tool that exactly has these
features, because we haven't found any existing open-source tool that
fits these requirements.

A project (potentially composed of different modules (i.e. source
directory) and supporting different artifacts) is described in one xml
file (the only file you have to write), and the build tool then
automatically generates ant files. We can therefore benefit from the
power of ant while not having the problem of writing complex ant build
files.

This new build system is likely to be released in open-source soon (ie.
in the next weeks). I'll inform you on this forum when it'll be ready
(or you can contact me if you don't see the announcement).

Cheers,

Jacques-Olivier

 

[Thomas Weidenfeller]

A project (potentially composed of different modules (i.e. source
directory) and supporting different artifacts) is described in one xml
file

XML? Oh, not again XML. A markup language is simply the wrong tool for a
declarative or scripting language.

/Thomas

 

[Jacques-Olivier Haenni]

Hello,

XML? Oh, not again XML. A markup language is simply the wrong tool for
a declarative or scripting language.

I agree with you that XML is a bad tool for being used as a scripting
language.

However, in our case, XML is not used as a declarative or scripting
language. It is used as a description language; that's totally different !

The XML file _describes_ the project structure and does not say how the
project must be compiled.

The processing is implemented in the build system itself and the XML
file is used as data input for this processing.

Hope this justifies the use of XML in that precise case...

Cheers,

Jacques-Olivier