Question

We use Ant to build a Java web application. The application will compile and run on both Tomcat 6 and Tomcat 5.5. However, the build process is slightly different depending on which version of Tomcat you have installed: 5.5 keeps jar files that the build needs in $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib and $CATALINA_HOME/server/lib, while 6.0 keeps them all in $CATALINA_HOME/lib.

How can I set up Ant to choose the correct classpath(s) depending on a setting in build.properties? I’d be ok with even having to list the directories to be included in the classpath in a setting in build.properties, but I haven’t been able to make this work.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Create 2 different path items:

<path id="path.tomcat55">
    <fileset ... (tomcat5.5 files) />
</path>

<path id="path.tomcat6">
    <fileset ... (tomcat6 files) />
</path>

Then create separate targets for building for 55, using the tomcat55 path and another for building 6 using tomcat6.

<target name="compile.tomcat55" depends="build">
    <echo message="Compiling for Tomcat 5.5" />
    <javac srcdir="${project.basedir}/src/test" destdir="${build.dir}" fork="true" source="1.5" classpathref="path.tomcat55" />
</target>

<target name="compile.tomcat6" depends="build">
    <echo message="Compiling for Tomcat 6" />
    <javac srcdir="${project.basedir}/src/test" destdir="${build.dir}" fork="true" source="1.5" classpathref="path.tomcat6" />
</target>

Then, just call the appropriate target.