Re: websphere.ant.tasks (WAS 5.1) and WSAD Studio ant tasks

[Barry Searle <se...@ca.ibm.com>]

Rebhan Gilbert, in his note below, was asking about the WAS AntTasks, and 
the WSAD AntTasks, and Ant Builds+Deploys.

Well, it happens that I am now responsible for the WAS AntTasks and the 
Studio (WSAD) AntTasks, and am also now responsible for creating an Ant 
productionBuild example/script and an Ant productionDeploy example/script.

The very short answer to the question is that:
- wsAnt.bat (.sh) should be used to launch the wsAnttask builds
  = since it sets up the environment (all the WAS JARs, etc)
- runAnt.bat (.sh) must be used to launch Studio Ant builds
  = since it launches headless Eclipse to enable its build functions

However, many folks dont want a full Studio install for builds, and/or 
dont want to be limited to Studio platforms (Windows/Linux). That issue 
has been heard and is being addressed.  I cannot say anything more about 
upcoming but unannounced products/features.

In the meantime, I have a Studio AntTask TechPreview with *many* new 
Studio build functions (projectImport, projectSetImport, 
workspaceClasspathVariable Set/Get, etc), and a complete Studio 
productionBuild example with a Java Project, an EJB project, a WAR 
project, an EAR project, etc.  Just send me an EMail if you want to 
receive it and be added to the distribution list.  It runs fine on Studio 
v50/v51 (or v6 betas)

I am partway through the subsequent productionDeploy example, which uses 
wsAnttask tasks plus embedded wsAdmin JACL scripts/scriptlets to read a 
property file defining the application(s) to be sequentially 
phase-deployed to target server(s)/cluster(s), and application/module 
property files defining any attributes to be set/modified during 
deployment.  This work is also included in the above TechPreview, and run 
with WAS v50/v51 (or v6 betas), primarily targeting NetworkDistribution 
servers and/or clusters, but also standalone servers.

Barry Searle,    searle@ca.ibm.com, 
"Architect, WebSphere Tools for Automated Production Build and 
Deployment". 


"Rebhan Gilbert" <Gi...@huk-coburg.de> wrote:
> We have to prepare for deploying some J2EE-Appl.
> running with WAS 5.1 under Unix (AIX).
> 
> So i'm doing some spadework. Is there any predefined
> stuff shipped with WAS 5.1 we may use 'out of the box'
> or do we have to roll our own ... etc.
> 
> I wanted to know about = 
> - the requirements for runnning the was_tasks with Ant 1.6.2
>     WAS ships with Ant 1.5.4, are they running with 1.6.2 ?
>     Do i have to put the wsanttasks.jar in the Ant\bin folder and
>     that's it ?
>     Do i have to use the ws_ant skript in was/.../bin/ ?
>     Any resources (examples, case studies ...) ?

> anyone here, who used the Ant-Tasks provided by IBM with
> Websphere Appl. Server 5.1 (com.ibm.websphere.ant.tasks) ?
> 
> I've googled already but did not find any examples
> of how to use this tasks.
> 
> Anyone here with practical experience about WAS+Ant,
> especially Deployment - workflow = WSAD -> Ant -> WAS ?