Using Ant APIs directly within Netbeans modules?

[Damjan Jovanovic <da...@apache.org>]

Hi

I am trying to develop some improvements to Java Free-Form projects, such
as auto-detection of the Java version and sources classpath from the Ant
file, but I am struggling to import Ant into the java/java.freeform module.

In fact, it seems NetBeans goes to great lengths to avoid ever using Ant
APIs directly: in the whole repository, org.apache.tools.ant.Project is
only ever imported in extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src-bridge.

Are NetBeans modules not allowed to use Ant directly? Why?

Thank you
Damjan

Re: Using Ant APIs directly within Netbeans modules?

[Jesse Glick <ty...@gmail.com>]

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 6:25 AM Jaroslav Tulach
<ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> the Ant support can run with any installed version of Ant, not just the bundled one.

Yes, this is why NB module code does not directly link against Ant
classes except via a small dynamically loaded bridge used when
actually running builds.

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 1:33 AM Damjan Jovanovic <da...@apache.org> wrote:
> [I] patched
> java/java.freeform/src/org/netbeans/modules/java/freeform/ui/SourceFoldersPanel.java
> to use it to extract Ant targets, search the child XML nodes of the
> "compile" target for the "javac" task, and extract more information (eg.
> Java version) from it. It worked, but the node attributes I get are from
> before Ant's variable substitution, ie. something like "${java.version}"
> instead of "1.7".
>
> Then I patched [1] to perform variable substitution on targets

It is not clear to me what you are trying to accomplish here, though I
can make some educated guesses and I suspect you are going against the
intent of the freeform project type.

Really I do not recommend use of `java.freeform` projects at all. If
you use Ant as your build tool, and would prefer to write your own
build scripts rather than having NB generate and manage them, then in
most cases you are much better off using the (relatively) newer
`autoproject.java` module, currently in the `contrib` repo I think. No
significant GUI configuration or NB-specific metadata files—just open
your project, run a “priming” build, and the IDE is ready to go. It
would be great if someone could get the `autoproject.*` modules (a)
moved into the main repo, (b) installed by default, (c) offered in the
UI as the preferred option instead of `*.freeform`.

Note that I recommend Maven projects for new development, and some
people will guide you to Gradle. Ant is basically legacy.

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Re: Using Ant APIs directly within Netbeans modules?

[Damjan Jovanovic <da...@apache.org>]

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 8:15 AM Jaroslav Tulach <ja...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dne středa 8. května 2019 7:30:55 CEST jste napsal(a):
> > On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 6:25 AM Jaroslav Tulach <
> jaroslav.tulach@gmail.com>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > Dne úterý 7. května 2019 2:46:19 CEST, Damjan Jovanovic napsal(a):
> > > > Hi
> > > >
> > > > I am trying to develop some improvements to Java Free-Form projects,
> > > > such
> > > > as auto-detection of the Java version and sources classpath from the
> Ant
> > > > file, but I am struggling to import Ant into the java/java.freeform
> > >
> > > module.
> > >
> > > > In fact, it seems NetBeans goes to great lengths to avoid ever using
> Ant
> > > > APIs directly: in the whole repository, org.apache.tools.ant.Project
> is
> > > > only ever imported in extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src-bridge.
> > > >
> > > > Are NetBeans modules not allowed to use Ant directly? Why?
> > >
> > > Hello Damjan,
> > > I guess it is for historic reasons. In the early stages, when Ant was
> > > developed hectically, it wasn't very compatible from the Java API
> point of
> > > view. This separation might have been primarily a shield against
> > > incompatible
> > > changed.
> > >
> > > The other aspect is that the Ant support can run with any installed
> > > version of
> > > Ant, not just the bundled one. I think.
> >
> > Thank you. That makes sense.
> >
> > I now have a different problem.
> >
> > I found NetBeans's Ant parser in
> >
> extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src/org/apache/tools/ant/module/api/support
> > /TargetLister.java [1]
> > and patched
> >
> java/java.freeform/src/org/netbeans/modules/java/freeform/ui/SourceFoldersPa
> > nel.java [2]
> > to use it to extract Ant targets, search the child XML nodes of the
> > "compile" target for the "javac" task, and extract more information (eg.
> > Java version) from it. It worked, but the node attributes I get are from
> > before Ant's variable substitution, ie. something like "${java.version}"
> > instead of "1.7".
> >
> > Then I patched [1] to perform variable substitution on targets, but it's
> > like the patched JAR is not getting used. The JULI logging I added in [1]
> > isn't performed, and when I step into it with jdb, the line numbers are
> > wrong, and calling
> > TargetLister.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation()
> from
> > [2] definitely gives me the right path for [1] and disassembling that
> class
> > with javap shows the changes I made, yet it's like a completely different
> > class is getting used...
>
> Who knows? Maybe it is the startup cache: http://wiki.netbeans.org/
> StartupCache - it is usually cleaned by "ant build" in a module, but
> something
> may be broken. `touch nbbuild/netbeans/**/.lastModified` files may help.
>
>
Thank you. That at least showed what I was doing wasn't working; I've been
using NetBeans 10.0 and selectively overwriting modules with patched
modules built from Git.

If I build the whole of NetBeans from Git instead, it fails on "Activating
Java SE..." and complains it's running on JRE, which it isn't. Adding
--jdkhome=/usr/local/openjdk8 makes it exit during startup without any
errors. This is without my changes, on commit
e9ecefdbe6702af327fd89d4ad0233d0565b2e48, FreeBSD 11.2 amd64 OpenJDK
1.8.0_202.

Let me try build 10.0 itself (release100 branch right?) and if that works,
then git bisect.

Re: Using Ant APIs directly within Netbeans modules?

[Damjan Jovanovic <da...@apache.org>]

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 6:25 AM Jaroslav Tulach <ja...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dne úterý 7. května 2019 2:46:19 CEST, Damjan Jovanovic napsal(a):
> > Hi
> >
> > I am trying to develop some improvements to Java Free-Form projects, such
> > as auto-detection of the Java version and sources classpath from the Ant
> > file, but I am struggling to import Ant into the java/java.freeform
> module.
> >
> > In fact, it seems NetBeans goes to great lengths to avoid ever using Ant
> > APIs directly: in the whole repository, org.apache.tools.ant.Project is
> > only ever imported in extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src-bridge.
> >
> > Are NetBeans modules not allowed to use Ant directly? Why?
>
> Hello Damjan,
> I guess it is for historic reasons. In the early stages, when Ant was
> developed hectically, it wasn't very compatible from the Java API point of
> view. This separation might have been primarily a shield against
> incompatible
> changed.
>
> The other aspect is that the Ant support can run with any installed
> version of
> Ant, not just the bundled one. I think.
>
>
Thank you. That makes sense.

I now have a different problem.

I found NetBeans's Ant parser in
extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src/org/apache/tools/ant/module/api/support/TargetLister.java
[1]
and patched
java/java.freeform/src/org/netbeans/modules/java/freeform/ui/SourceFoldersPanel.java
[2]
to use it to extract Ant targets, search the child XML nodes of the
"compile" target for the "javac" task, and extract more information (eg.
Java version) from it. It worked, but the node attributes I get are from
before Ant's variable substitution, ie. something like "${java.version}"
instead of "1.7".

Then I patched [1] to perform variable substitution on targets, but it's
like the patched JAR is not getting used. The JULI logging I added in [1]
isn't performed, and when I step into it with jdb, the line numbers are
wrong, and calling
TargetLister.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation() from
[2] definitely gives me the right path for [1] and disassembling that class
with javap shows the changes I made, yet it's like a completely different
class is getting used...

Re: Using Ant APIs directly within Netbeans modules?

[Jaroslav Tulach <ja...@gmail.com>]

Dne úterý 7. května 2019 2:46:19 CEST, Damjan Jovanovic napsal(a):
> Hi
> 
> I am trying to develop some improvements to Java Free-Form projects, such
> as auto-detection of the Java version and sources classpath from the Ant
> file, but I am struggling to import Ant into the java/java.freeform module.
> 
> In fact, it seems NetBeans goes to great lengths to avoid ever using Ant
> APIs directly: in the whole repository, org.apache.tools.ant.Project is
> only ever imported in extide/o.apache.tools.ant.module/src-bridge.
> 
> Are NetBeans modules not allowed to use Ant directly? Why?

Hello Damjan,
I guess it is for historic reasons. In the early stages, when Ant was 
developed hectically, it wasn't very compatible from the Java API point of 
view. This separation might have been primarily a shield against incompatible 
changed.

The other aspect is that the Ant support can run with any installed version of 
Ant, not just the bundled one. I think.

-jt




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