How to call imported ant target/task in Java

Question

Hi,
Can anybody advice me how to call an ant target/task, which is
"<import/>"ed from another build file, from within Java code?
Here's my Java code:
import org.apache.tools.ant.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class MyTest
private Project project;
public void init(String buildFile, String baseDir) throws
Exception
project = new Project();
try { project.init(); }
catch (BuildException e)
{ throw new Exception("The default task list could not be
loaded."
// Set the base directory. If none is given, "." is used.
if (_baseDir == null) _baseDir=new String(".");
try { project.setBasedir(_baseDir); }
catch (BuildException e)
{ throw new Exception("The given basedir doesn't exist, or
isn't a directory."); }
if (_buildFile == null) _buildFile=new String("a.xml");
try { ProjectHelper.getProjectHelper().parse(project, new
File(_buildFile)); }
catch (BuildException e)
{ throw new Exception("Configuration file "+_buildFile+" is
invalid, or cannot be read."); }
public void runTarget(String _target) throws Exception
// Test if the project exists
if (project == null) throw new Exception("No target can be
launched because the project has not been initialized. Please call the
'init' method first !");
// If no target is specified, run the default one.
if (_target == null) _target = project.getDefaultTarget();
// Run the target
try { project.executeTarget(_target); }
catch (Exception e)
{ throw new Exception(e.getMessage()); }
public static void main(String args[])
try{
MyTest mytest=new MyTest();
mytest.init("c.xml",".");
mytest.runTarget(null);
}catch(Exception e)
e.printStackTrace();
Here are my build files: (they look almost the same. But it's only to see if <import> works.)
1.c.xml:
<project basedir="." default="runtests" name="TestC">
<import file="a.xml"/>
</project>
2. a.xml:
<project basedir="." default="runtests" name="TestA">
<target name="runtests" depends="">
<mkdir dir="ttt"/>
</target>
</project>
If I directly set build file "a.xml" in MyTest.java, everthing works
well. However, if set "c.xml" then do task "<mkdir dir="ttt"/>" defined
in "a.xml" which was imported by "c.xml", when running, I got an
exception. Looks like it can't parse my c.xml which include "import".
BTW, I'm using ant 1.6.2, and running "ant -f c.xml" was ok.
Did I miss any classpath or something? Any idea?
Thanks,
Amy

Answer 1

I have a standard Ant build script for signing a jar file. I import it into my master Ant build files with
<import file="Sign.xml"/>
and then in my master Ant script I setup the name of the jar file e.g.
<property name="jar-file" value="${fun}/FunApplet.jar"/>
and then invoke a target
<target name="sign-jar" depends="jar, sign">
</target>
Since this target (sign-jar) depends on target 'jar' and target 'sign' it executes the 'jar' target and then the 'sign' target that is contained in Sign.xml.