Apache ANT Tutorial

What is ANT?

Apache ANT is a Java based build tool from Apache Software Foundation. Apache ANTs build files are written in XML and they take advantage of being open standard, portable and easy to understand.

Why ANT?

On an average, a developer spends a substantial amount of time doing mundane tasks like compile, build, packaging. testing, deployment and many other tasks which are repeated multiple times during an application development lifecycle. Apache Ant automate these tasks very easily. ANT is a build tool which can be operated using a command line console as well.

This Apache ANT tutorial is based on the latest Apache ANT 1.10.15 version.

Key Features of ANT

• ANT is the one of the most complete Java build and deployment tool available.

• ANT is platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties, such as file separators.

• ANT can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command.

• Ant scripts are written using plain XML. If you are already familiar with XML, you can learn Ant pretty quickly.

• Ant is good at automating complicated repetitive tasks.

• Ant comes with a big list of predefined tasks.

• Ant provides an interface to develop custom tasks.

• Ant can be easily invoked from the command line and it can integrate with free and commercial IDEs.

Who Should Learn Apache ANT?

Apache ANT is a nice tool to automate the build and deployment process in simple and easy ways. It is great for those who want to build java based applications and automate various types of build activities or who need to work on ANT based project to understand the configurations and ANT working. Students and educators can also benefit from its flexibility and ease of use.

Prerequisites to Learn Apache ANT

To learn Apache ANT, you should know basic Java and have an understanding of software build and deployment processes.