Question

The default ant system I have set up for my Android app has two different options: release and debug. I can differentiate between the two using ${build.is.packaging.debug}. I can build these in one step by doing either ant release or ant debug.

I’d like to be able to add a third option: beta. This way I can enable certain flags for beta users that I don’t want normal users to see while still leaving out my debugging code. Where in the ant build system do I specify a new target?

Answer 1

If you open your project build.xml you will find there targets release and debug. You should create new one similar with name beta and set apply your specific parameters there.

Here is mine example of simple ant build process:

<project name="j2me_library" default="build" basedir=".">
   <property name="build.version" value="1.0.0" />
   <property name="build.name" value="library-${build.version}" />

   <property name="src" value="src" />
   <property name="lib" value="lib" />

   <property name="build" value="build" />
   <property name="classes" value="${build}/classes" />
   <property name="dist" value="${build}/dist" />


   <!--
    the "build" target is the default entry point of this script
   -->
   <target name="build" depends="package" />

   <!--
    the "clean" target will delete the build directory which contains lots of mess from the previous build
   -->
   <target name="clean">
    <delete dir="${build}" />
   </target>

   <target name="prepare" depends="clean">
    <mkdir dir="${classes}"/>
    <mkdir dir="${dist}"/>
   </target>

   <!--
    the "compile" target generates the .class files from the .java sources
   -->
   <target name="compile" depends="prepare">
    <path id="lib.files">
      <fileset dir="${lib}">
        <include name="*.jar" />
      </fileset>
    </path>

    <property name="lib.classpath" refid="lib.files" />

    <javac srcdir="${src};"
        destdir="${classes}"
        includeantruntime="false"
        classpath="${lib.classpath}"
        bootclasspath="${lib.classpath}"
        target="1.1"
        source="1.2"
    />
   </target>

   <!--
    the "package" target creates the jar file
   -->
   <target name="package" depends="compile">
    <jar destfile="${dist}/${build.name}.jar" basedir="${classes}"/>
   </target>
  </project>