Customer Reviews

Java Development with Ant

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This should be required reading for all Java developers. Java Development with Ant shows how to automate most of the drudgery involved with large Java projects. The authors included a lot of great examples and practical advice covering the essentials of Ant, building, testing, and running code.

Despite its size, the book is not full of endless code listings or mundane command references, which are available for Ant elsewhere anyway. They do include a brief (60 page) appendix which is useful when you are reading away from your computer.

The first two chapters are great for a new Ant user. I had used other people's build files before reading this book, but had never created my own before. The first chapter told me want Ant is and the second helped me create my first build file.

The third chapter explains the nuts and bolts of Ant datatypes and properties. The third chapter was a little too dense for my first read (or maybe I was too dense for it). No matter, I read it and figured I would refer back later.

The next four chapters teach you how to integrate jUnit, run programs using Ant, package a JAR (or WAR, or EAR), and deploy it. Chapter 8 recaps everything from the first section with a reasonable sample project. Large enough to be real, small enough to understand.

Part 2 is titled Applying Ant and includes many interesting chapters. Each chapter is like an article about a particular application of Ant such as XDoclet, XML, EJBs, etc. These are great reads and work independently of one another, so you can skip around to what you are interested in.

Part 3 talks about Extending Ant by writing tasks, mappers, and filters. Here again, they avoid printing out the API by focusing on practical examples.

The appendices have good info as well. The installation section is nice and the XML primer might be helpful for a newbie. Appendix C gives a tour of a number of IDEs and their Ant integration.

Appendix D is a real gem. "The Elements of Ant Style" is a brief set of guidelines for the buildfile author. Not only does it provide recommendations, they even followed my favorite maxim from Strunk & White, "Omit needless words." The whole appendix is only 16 pages.

Great stuff; highly recommended.

Very good programmers are often terrible authors.. as you will find out from both this book and the manning book on Struts. Having been written by Ant contributors and "junkies" it tends to be more of an "ant treatise" than a tutorial on how to use
it in the most common and useful situations. So buy it if you want a long and wordy description of of ant and all its quirks,
but you want lots of clean, short, to-the-point, easy to follow
examples you might get disappointed here. Also, be aware that this book is 500 pages long, and if learning routine web and business programming can be boring, wading through 500 pages about how to compile package deploy and test that code is boring beyond belief!

Ant is a great tool that lets you pretty much automate any process- whether Java build-related or not. This book is then THE one-and-only book to buy - it serves as a tutorial AND a reference. The author's breadth of knowledge on Ant is amazing and the examples he presents are wonderful.

The key areas I found the book very helpful on were
1) JUnit integration & report creation (using XDoclet /JUnitReport)
2) Deployment-related activities
3) Breaking out commonly used Ant targets for reuse

But there is so much more - my edition has been well thumbed
and has many yellow post-it notes for quick lookup.

Based on what I've learned in this book I've been able to quickly and easily integrate the following components into my build process
1) Checkstyle (syntax checker)
2) PMD ("bad practice" checker)
3) JUnit & Clover (code coverage)
4) JDepend (Class interdependcy reporting)
5) Javadoc
6) An automated nightly build of the code and deployment to WebSphere

I can't say enough about this book - but I would be lost without it and thus am loathe to lend it. If you use Ant or WANT to use Ant then buy this book.

I never would have known about such time savers as Middlegen if I hadn't read this book.

It has better documentation on some of these other utilities than do the utilities themselves. For example, read this book instead of the CruiseControl documentation, if you need CruiseControl on your project.

It's also very well-written and organized, with just the right amount of examples - no tedious 10-page listings.

Much better than the O'Reilly lizard book. What's up with the lizard anyway? They had a ready-made animal cover in Ant, and they ignored it.

Being a long-time fan of computer books with animals on the cover, I had bought a certain other Ant book before I got this one. But after I got this book, I've not cracked open the other book even once. Meanwhile, I'm considering getting another copy of JDwA because the one I have now is starting to look ragged from all of the use I've gotten out of it!

This book covers everything there is to know about Ant 1.5. It takes you from basic build steps such as compiling right up to more advanced topics such as code generation with XDoclet and on to packaging up web, enterprise, and web-service applications. And if that isn't enough, you'll also learn how to extend Ant with custom tasks.

If you're using Ant to build your Java projects, then you *need* this book. If you're not using Ant to build your projects, then why aren't you? Get this book and find out how to streamline your builds. Don't waste your time or money on any other Ant book. This is the best Ant book, bar-none.

I don't normally buy Manning books, but this is a high-quality, accessible, good read on Ant. The book is great for both newbies and experienced Ant developers. The writing is very clear and the topics are presented in a logical, orderly fashion. Everything seems to be up-to-date and on the money for Ant 1.5.

The book is full of practical implementation advice, though I would have liked to see more code and build file examples. For more information on how to use Ant with other tools, I recommend "Java Tools for Extreme Programming."

Well done!

...and perhaps ever. I can't imagine it getting much better than this.

There are some weaknesses in the book, for instance, they refrain from printing a lot of build files and talk about "evolving" some mysterious file you don't get to see until chapter 8. But it's not a fatal error.

I bought the other two books that mention Ant, and would strongly recommend AGAINST getting Ant: The Definitive Guide. I can't believe there are people that recommended that over this.

I can generally say all Manning books are very well written,
well checked for errors, and contain a lot of information.

The authors are all very knowledgeable in their fields
with a lot of practical experience which shows in the books.

The books are very readable and comprehensive.

You will come back to these books again and again.

As for this book:

I have been using Ant in my java projects for
at least two years now.
I have barely started reading this book
and it has already helped me do many new things.

It will end up by your side whenever you work on Ant --
regardless of your level of experience (newbie to expert).

You will be doing new things quickly
and working wonders with Ant.

Easily explore the full potential of this beautiful tool.

An indispensable resource for any Java developer.

A grateful thank you to two excellent authors
for a very comprehensive Ant tutorial-cum-reference.

This is by far the best Ant book on the market. The authors know Ant inside and out and are able to explain it's use. Notice I said "it's use". Unlike some other Ant books this one doesn't spend most of its time telling you how to write an Ant task (something few people need to do) but instead concentrates on using Ant to solve software build problems.

Recommended.

I had to come back to this book listing just to leave this review. I'm not finished with the book yet but I just love it. Very few tech books I own have been able to ramp me up in a technology as fast as this one. Very clearly written and builds on the technology nicely. You need to know something about Java and XML. But if you are looking at ANT you are because you are looking for something to help your development experience. I highly recommend this book.