Customer Reviews

Pro Apache Ant (Expert's Voice in Java)

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4 star:		(3)
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Ant is one of those "Swiss Army Knife" tools that can take care of a stunning amount of work when it comes to automating your build process. Matthew Moodie does a good job mixing reference and practical information about Ant in his book Pro Apache Ant.

Contents: Introducing Ant; Installing Ant; Using Ant; Examining Ant's Types; Building a Project; Deploying an Application; Running an Application; Testing an Application; Using Ant in Large Projects; Writing Custom Tasks; Extending Ant; Using the Ant API; Index

In Pro Apache Ant, Moodie does a quick intro to the package and shows you how to install it. Once that's done, then you're off on a tour that touches on a wide array of functionality that Ant brings to your development project. The book seems to be a smooth blend of reference material covered in a format that is more geared towards practicality. For instance, the Building A Project chapter sets up an example scenario that would commonly be seen in a programming environment. The structure of the development system is put forth, and then the Ant code is built to show how an Ant script can automate the many manual tasks that would normally be part of the build process. Interspersed throughout the chapter are tables that show the particular command being used, as well as an explanation of all the particular attributes and parameters that can be used with the command. As such, you learn *how* to do something as well as having the tools to extend your use beyond the example. Having the blend of styles makes the book one that will last beyond your learning period.

If you've never worked through build processes in your environment, or if this is your first exposure to a scripting tool like Ant, you may end up proceeding a bit slower than you'd like. While you can learn everything you need from this book, it seemed to me that the reader would probably do better if they had at least a passing familiarity with scripting tools and a Java build process. The intro is quick, but if you're willing to do what's necessary to get the basics down, the book will be invaluable going forward. And if you're looking for something to round out your knowledge of Ant because you use it on a regular basis, then this is a very viable option. Nice job...

I needed something that would help me master Ant in as little time as possible. This is the book. The book gives fundamentals as well as cook book examples. You could click thru the free Ant doc online, but this book will get you up and running in the least amount of time.

It also has a section on extending Ant. From my searching, this book is the only good resource on extending and customizing Ant. Both a good starter book and a good reference book.

Ant is one of those technologies that has an excellent manual and API online . This sets a higher standard for a book so as not too just duplicate the Internet content. "Pro Apache Ant" meets this challenge.

The author walks you through a good number of the Ant tasks with examples and tips. The attributes are provided for common tasks, so you have a physical reference. The author refers you to the manual for some of the less common tasks. A summary of ant-contrib is provided since it is such a standard library. The author points to the Internet for a list of optional tasks.

This book assumes you know Java and the packaging process. In other words, you should know what a jar and war are to understand the sample application.

After walking through the common tasks and incrementally building a sample build.xml, the author delves into some more advanced topics. Included are how to refactor a build file, accommodate large projects, custom tasks, mappers and how to use the Ant API from a Java program.

The book doesn't have any fluff. It starts with an introduction to Ant and Ant's benefits. After a detailed explanation of how to install Ant, you see the first Ant task. I recommend "Pro Apache Ant" if you are getting started with Ant or want to know how to use it more powerfully.

I was a newcomer to ANT when I purchased this book and I found this book to be very useful. Several of the ANT features are covered in this book and examples are provided for almost every chapter. I tested most of the examples and they run fine. In a couple of places, I had to make changes to get the code to run but this will be pretty obvious once you start reading the book. As another reviewer mentioned, this book does have a nice balance between API and content. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to ANT novices.

This book has alot of text but weak on info. I quickly glazed over due to the fact that there was alot to wade through to find the nuggets of information. The reference part of the book is lacking. This book is NOT very helpful if you are trying to get up to speed quickly.