Here is a quick summary of the most frequently used Ant targets available in the JetExpress build.xml file.
| targets | explanation |
| create.installer | Builds the entire jetexpress portal and creates a Jetspeed Custom Installer. |
| delta | The default target. Deploys any modifications to the source tree to an existing, deployed portal. Note: you must first build and install the portal before running this goal using the create.installer goal. |
| deploy.decorations | Deploys any modifications to decorations to the live portal. |
| deploy.pages | Deploys any modifications to PSML pages to the live portal. |
| deploy.webapps | Deploys all webapps to the live portal. |
You can see all of the targets available in the build.xml file by selecting the build.xml file in the Navigator view and selecting the Outline view from the "Window" menu.
Ant build files are a bit intimidating but are pretty easy to understand if they are well structured and you take the time to look at definitions carefully. Once you understand the existing tasks, you can add your own to automate tasks that are particular to your workflow.
It is a good practice in Ant to separate the task definitions from the specifics of your installation. Ant does this through a file called build.properties. Definitions put into this file are available for use in the build.xml file.
This makes is easy to distribute an Ant build that is easy to customize. The person receiving the Ant build configuration can usually just modify the build.properties file to make the build work in their enviroment without having to look through each Ant goal to see where files are expected or where they are going to be put by the Ant Goal
# general properties portal.name = jetexpress # installation properties installer.src.jar = /JetspeedTraining/installers/jetspeed-2.1.1-dev-installer.jar installer.target = ./target installer.dst.jar = jetexpress-installer.jar # development deployment properties app.server.home = /JetspeedTraining/servers/tomcat-express