This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: How do you deploy Java web apps with Ant? Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

Everytime I write an Ant build.xml file to build and deploy web apps, I do something slightly different. It's anoying. Here's what I'm currently using for the JAAS book:

  <target name="make-webapp-chp09"
          depends="compile" 
          description="Copies all files to WAR build directory.">
    <mkdir dir="${jsp.chp09.build}" />
    <mkdir dir="${jsp.chp09.build}/logs/" />
    <mkdir dir="${jsp.chp09.build}/WEB-INF/classes" />
    <mkdir dir="${jsp.chp09.build}/WEB-INF/lib/" />
    <copy todir="${jsp.chp09.build}">
      <fileset dir="${jsp.chp09.src}" />
    </copy>
    <copy todir="${jsp.chp09.build}/WEB-INF/classes">
      <fileset dir="${java.build.dir}" />
    </copy>
    <copy todir="${jsp.chp09.build}/WEB-INF/lib/">
      <fileset dir="${basedir}/lib/" />
    </copy>
  </target>

  <target name="deploy-jsps-chp09" 
          description="Deploys only the JSPs and realted files. WEB-INF is excluded.">
    <copy todir="${jsp.chp09.build}">
      <fileset dir="${jsp.chp09.src}">
        <include name="**/*" />
        <exclude name="WEB-INF/**" />
      </fileset>
    </copy>
  </target>

  <target name="deploy-server-xml-chp09" 
          depends="make-webapp-chp09"
          description="copies server.xml file to tomcat directory.">
    <copy file="${src.dir}/conf/server-chp09.xml" toFile="${tomcat.deploy.dir}/jaas-book-chp09.xml">
      <filterset>
        <filter token="WAR-DEPLOY-ROOT" value="${jsp.chp09.build}" />
      </filterset>
    </copy>
  </target>

I need to write an Ant task for all those three steps: build web app, deploy only JSPs, copy Tomcat's server.xml. Some day!

What do you do?