how to call an ant target when overriding the target in a child file

Question

i have a project that uses a parent ant file

similar to this:

<project name="some-portlet" basedir="." default="deploy">  
  <import file="../build-common-portlet.xml" />
  <target name="test">
    <echo message="do foo"/>
    RUN TEST FROM PARENT HERE
  </target>
  </project>

now i want to override the parent test target in this way:

do some copying of jars needed
run the test target from the parent file

the first part is no problem, but i do not see a way to call test from the parent file

i want the target to be named test also, so that CI can simply run the test target.

is there a way to call test in ../build-common-portlet.xml ?

Alexander Pogrebnyak · Answer 1 · 2011-09-15T11:42:44.467

The simplest way is to use dependency on parent's test.

For that it's important that you keep <project> name attribute in sync with its file name ( OK that's not, strictly speaking, necessary, but greatly improves your script's readability and maintainability ).

So in build-common-portlet.xml:

<project
  name="build-common-portlet" <-- note the name
  ...
>
  <target name="test">
    <echo message="Calling parent test target"/>
    ...
  </target>
</project>

That way you can just do:

<project name="some-portlet" basedir="." default="deploy">  
  <import file="../build-common-portlet.xml" />
  <target name="test"
    depends="build-common-portlet.test" <-- note parent specification
  >
    <echo message="do foo"/>
    RUN TEST FROM PARENT HERE
  </target>
</project>

>> In reply to comment

If you want to do some work before running parent's test, just create a new target and put dependency on it before parent's test:

<project name="some-portlet" basedir="." default="deploy">  
  <import file="../build-common-portlet.xml" />

  <target name="copy-jars">
    <echo message="copying jars"/>
  </target>

  <target name="test"
    depends="
      copy-jars,
      build-common-portlet.test
    "
  />
</project>

wouldn't this make the parent test run first? in my case this would fail because the copying of jars would not have happened. also i don't want to modify the parent because more than this project includes the parent file. (i have a solution, at least it seems like it, in the following answer) — nheid, Sep 15 '11 at 07:32
I like this approach better than calling the parent target explicitly! Worked for me! — Nick Spacek, Dec 10 '12 at 13:57

nheid · Answer 2 · 2011-09-15T07:46:05.417

6

I found a solution, that would run my commands and then call test from the parent ant file. Override the parent's test, then call when the parent's test once you've done your own "magic".

All other parent's targets can be called too.

So for somebody not knowing your ant file, she can call ant test the way it's expected.

<project name="some-portlet" basedir="." default="deploy">
        <import file="../build-common-portlet.xml" />
<target name="test">
        <echo message="do foo"/>
        <ant antfile="../build-common-portlet.xml" target="test"/>
</target>
</project>

edited Sep 15 '11 at 07:46

answered Sep 15 '11 at 07:36

nheid

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17

Nice, I was looking for a solution when I do not have control over the imported file and when it does not have set. – alexandroid Feb 15 '12 at 01:34

how to call an ant target when overriding the target in a child file

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