Ant R2.1
Ant and External Tools
Overall 2.1 Plan
The 2.1 plan below is a proto plan and input from the community is very welcome.

The overall themes for Eclipse Ant are:

  • robust and enhance
  • reduce gestures, improve usability
  • first class Ant integration

Planned Items

  • Ant view
    • run scripts
    • run targets
    • synchronize with script under edit
    • enhance target selection (via "active" targets area)
    • find and add arbitrary scripts to the view
  • Ant Editor
    • Investigate support for an Ant editor
  • Launch Configurations
    • Use launch configurations to define/run external tools/ant scripts
    • Run tools in non-UI thread (i.e. non-modal)
  • Ant Launch Configurations
    • Support for configuration specific classpath
  • Console
    • Shared console with debug platform
    • Navigation from error output to the corresponding source/resource (done for javac, jikes, & Eclipse Java compiler)
    • Command line style output
  • Actions
    • Supprt "-find" option
    • "Run Ant..." should open a dialog that only displays a single launch config (instead of all), allowing the user to edit the config before launching (requires support from debug platform).
  • Ant Runtime
    • Upgrade to Ant 1.5.1
    • support "-find" option
  • External Tool Builders
    • New builders will be defined/edited as launch configurations
    • Migrate existing external tool builders to launch configurations
    • Support for specifying full or incremental build

Deferred Items (Post 2.1)

  • Console
    • Extension point to register regex for task output. Extension creates a hyperlink, and error marker.
  • Ant API
    • There will be no public API for Ant or External Tools in 2.1
  • Enhance Ant Launch Configurations
    • Support for running in separate VM
item is under development item is finished
2.1 Development Effort - Milestone 5 (February 7th, 2003)

The work items listed below are only a guide. The community is also invited to provide input.

  • Bug Fixing - Fixing defects
  • Ant Editor
    • Create an Ant editor with code assist (based on Planty contribution)
  • Actions
    • "Run Ant..." should open a dialog that only displays a single launch config (instead of all), allowing the user to edit the config before launching (requires support from debug platform).
  • Console
    • Navigation from "javac" & "jikes" error output to corresponding resource
  • Externa Tool Builders
    • Support for specifying full or incremental build
  • UI Review
    • Polish & Streamline Ant UI
  •  

Bug Resolution