Question

I’m trying to get a handle on this whole “Ant” buildsystem thing. I’ve created a build.xml that Android natively gives me by using the command: android update project -p . .

While this has given me a template build.xml file, I would like a couple more options. Specifically, I would like to be able to JAR and/or Compile my project; preferably with a version number.

Bonus Question: How can I exclude files from my JAR build. For example, I have one activity that I’ve used to test my functionality, but I don’t want that to be included in the final JAR.

My build.xml file that Android has given me is Gisted here since it’s pretty long (mostly comments).

EDIT: I’m also using IntelliJ so no Eclipse specifics, please!

Answer 1

Specifically, I would like to be able to JAR and/or Compile my project; preferably with a version number.

In Android, version numbers are for apps, not JARs.

That being said, adding a jar target is a matter of adding this to your build.xml file towards the bottom:

<target name="jar" depends="debug">
    <jar
        destfile="bin/whatever-you-want-to-call-the.jar"
        basedir="bin/classes"
    />
</target>

Then, run ant jar to compile and package the JAR file.

You will see this pattern in most of the reusable Android components in my GitHub area (see the cwac- repos).

Bonus Question: How can I exclude files from my JAR build. For example, I have one activity that I’ve used to test my functionality, but I don’t want that to be included in the final JAR.

Use excludes or excludesfile, as described in the jar Ant task documentation.