Help set up the Java build environment

My wisdom is over I spend more time on my build work than actually developing software I am currently developing a large Java Web Application Based on Tomcat 6

At present, the code base is about 25K LOC (although this is not very representative, because some of them are automatically generated for Web Services - but its importance is that it is very large) and I have been using eclipse to complete debugging, path management and construction In the past, eclipse has been more than enough, but I have never been involved in such a large project before

The first problem I encountered was when I started adding GWT content It works well, but the build process is a bit Hacky: I have to compile manually and copy the JS output to the appropriate directory. Debugging is a nightmare (I found that some of the problems are just GWT and how it works..) Now, the problem I encounter is trying to process projects on a Windows machine (I used to work on a Mac and will continue to use it from time to time) Eclipse adds the Mac OS JVM library to the build path. Of course, windows cannot find it

I asked a question about working in two different environments and most of the answers are related to using build tools like ant ivy or Maven I've started investigating Maven and trying to get my project to use it, but it's just one headache after another. I haven't even started trying to actually execute / debug my application in Tomcat through eclipse The most frustrating part of all this is that it seems to me that these building tools are very complex (and fair and flexible) but, at least initially, when you try to figure out how to make life more difficult, you just need to compile a java file

All this said, is there any suggestion on how to simplify this situation? Dependency management will be good, but I don't mind looking for jars myself The most important thing I need is to get me at a loss and let me continue to study what I am actually trying to do, instead of spending hours debugging my spelling mistakes in the XML file that I used to build the system.

Thank you in advance

Solution

I agree. You don't need Maven; You don't need ivy Start with ant

This is a relatively general ant build xml. Customize as needed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="xslt-converter" basedir="." default="package">

    <property name="version" value="1.6"/>
    <property name="haltonfailure" value="no"/>

    <property name="out" value="out"/>

    <property name="production.src" value="src"/>
    <property name="production.lib" value="lib"/>
    <property name="production.resources" value="config"/>
    <property name="production.classes" value="${out}/production/${ant.project.name}"/>

    <property name="test.src" value="test"/>
    <property name="test.lib" value="lib"/>
    <property name="test.resources" value="config"/>
    <property name="test.classes" value="${out}/test/${ant.project.name}"/>

    <property name="exploded" value="out/exploded/${ant.project.name}"/>
    <property name="exploded.classes" value="${exploded}/WEB-INF/classes"/>
    <property name="exploded.lib" value="${exploded}/WEB-INF/lib"/>

    <property name="reports.out" value="${out}/reports"/>
    <property name="junit.out" value="${reports.out}/junit"/>
    <property name="testng.out" value="${reports.out}/testng"/>

    <path id="production.class.path">
        <pathelement location="${production.classes}"/>
        <pathelement location="${production.resources}"/>
        <fileset dir="${production.lib}">
            <include name="**/*.jar"/>
            <exclude name="**/junit*.jar"/>
            <exclude name="**/*test*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
    </path>

    <path id="test.class.path">                            
        <path refid="production.class.path"/>
        <pathelement location="${test.classes}"/>
        <pathelement location="${test.resources}"/>
        <fileset dir="${test.lib}">
            <include name="**/junit*.jar"/>
            <include name="**/*test*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
    </path>

    <path id="testng.class.path">
        <fileset dir="${test.lib}">
            <include name="**/testng*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
    </path>

    <available file="${out}" property="outputExists"/>

    <target name="clean" description="remove all generated artifacts" if="outputExists">
        <delete dir="${out}" includeEmptyDirs="true"/>
        <delete dir="${reports.out}" includeEmptyDirs="true"/>
    </target>

    <target name="create" description="create the output directories" unless="outputExists">
        <mkdir dir="${production.classes}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${test.classes}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${reports.out}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${junit.out}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${testng.out}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${exploded.classes}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${exploded.lib}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="compile" description="compile all .java source files" depends="create">
        <!-- Debug output
                <property name="production.class.path" refid="production.class.path"/>
                <echo message="${production.class.path}"/>
        -->
        <javac srcdir="src" destdir="${out}/production/${ant.project.name}" debug="on" source="${version}">
            <classpath refid="production.class.path"/>
            <include name="**/*.java"/>
            <exclude name="**/*Test.java"/>
        </javac>
        <javac srcdir="${test.src}" destdir="${out}/test/${ant.project.name}" debug="on" source="${version}">
            <classpath refid="test.class.path"/>
            <include name="**/*Test.java"/>
        </javac>
    </target>

    <target name="junit-test" description="run all junit tests" depends="compile">
        <!-- Debug output
                <property name="test.class.path" refid="test.class.path"/>
                <echo message="${test.class.path}"/>
        -->
        <junit printsummary="yes" haltonfailure="${haltonfailure}">
            <classpath refid="test.class.path"/>
            <formatter type="xml"/>
            <batchtest fork="yes" todir="${junit.out}">
                <fileset dir="${test.src}">
                    <include name="**/*Test.java"/>
                </fileset>
            </batchtest>
        </junit>
        <junitreport todir="${junit.out}">
            <fileset dir="${junit.out}">
                <include name="TEST-*.xml"/>
            </fileset>
            <report todir="${junit.out}" format="frames"/>
        </junitreport>
    </target>

    <taskdef resource="testngtasks" classpathref="testng.class.path"/>
    <target name="testng-test" description="run all testng tests" depends="compile">
        <!-- Debug output
                <property name="test.class.path" refid="test.class.path"/>
                <echo message="${test.class.path}"/>
        -->
        <testng classpathref="test.class.path" outputDir="${testng.out}" haltOnFailure="${haltonfailure}" verbose="2" parallel="methods" threadcount="50">
            <classfileset dir="${out}/test/${ant.project.name}" includes="**/*.class"/>
        </testng>
    </target>

    <target name="exploded" description="create exploded deployment" depends="testng-test">
        <copy todir="${exploded.classes}">
            <fileset dir="${production.classes}"/>
        </copy>
        <copy todir="${exploded.lib}">
            <fileset dir="${production.lib}"/>
        </copy>
    </target>

    <target name="package" description="create package file" depends="exploded">
        <jar destfile="${out}/${ant.project.name}.jar" basedir="${production.classes}" includes="**/*.class"/>
    </target>

</project>