The classic way to tackle this in ant is to use the <available> task in the
init target and then only run the jdepend target if the classes are present.
Something like the following in the init target:

<available property="jdepend.present"
classname="com.clarkware.jdepend.JDepend"/>
(guessing at the classname because I don't have an example to hand)

And then the jdepend target gains an extra attribute:

<target name="jdepend" depends="init" if="jdepend.present">
...
</target>


Of course this doesn't guarentee that jdepend will run for everyone, but
should mean that those without jdepend don't get a broken build. Ant 1.6
"antlibs" should be able to be a little more creative but I've not
investigated properly yet.

Hope that helps,

Rob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Saenger" <meinc@...>
To: <jdepend@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 3:01 PM
Subject: [jdepend] Problems with Ant/JDepend continued


> Hi,
> I'm new to jdepend. Tried it out and got the
> impression that we could benefit from using it in our
> project.
> However, if I do *NOT* put the jdepend library on the
> 'external' classpath, jdepend fails to do it's
> work. The problem with that is that I can not assume
> that other project members do have the jdepend
> extension on their classpath, e.g. included in ant's
> lib dir. Usually we deliver utility jars together with
> the project and add them to the project's classpath. I
> thought that this could be achieved
> by using the fork attribute and adding a classpath
> entry for the jdepend task. But it doesn't work.
>
> Instead I got the following error (I used verbose
> mode):
>
>
> C:\dev\projects\JJX\shared>ant -v jdepend
> Apache Ant version 1.5.3 compiled on April 16 2003
> Buildfile: build.xml
> Detected Java version: 1.4 in:
> C:\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_02\jre
> Detected OS: Windows XP
> parsing buildfile build.xml with URI =
> file:C:/dev/projects/JJX/shared/build.
> xml
> Project base dir set to: C:\dev\projects\JJX\shared
> Build sequence for target `jdepend' is [prerequisites,
> init, jdepend]
> Complete build sequence is [prerequisites, init,
> jdepend, clean, veryclean, real
> clean, generate, compile, declare, xgenerate, archive,
> jcsc, build-everything, p
> repare, makekey, dist-standalone-win, dist, wininst,
> installer, all, xviewcheck,
> runxcnf, runxcnfplus, encrypt, run, test, runpro,
> allmostall, doc]
>
> prerequisites:
>
> init:
> Property ${site} has not been set
> [property] Loading
> C:\dev\projects\JJX\shared\build.properties
> [copy] index.html omitted as index.html is up to
> date.
> [copy] xsl\category.xsl omitted as
> xsl/category.xsl is up to date.
> [copy] xsl\class.xsl omitted as xsl/class.xsl is
> up to date.
> [copy] xsl\overview.xsl omitted as
> xsl/overview.xsl is up to date.
> [copy] xsl\package.xsl omitted as xsl/package.xsl
> is up to date.
> [copy] xsl\packagelist.xsl omitted as
> xsl/packagelist.xsl is up to date.
> [copy] xsl\rule.xsl omitted as xsl/rule.xsl is up
> to date.
> [copy] xsl\severity.xsl omitted as
> xsl/severity.xsl is up to date.
> [dependset]
> C:\dev\projects\JJX\shared\gensrc\generic\dt\ui\build\impl\Action
> Impl.java is oldest target file
> [available] Found: gensrc\generic\dt\ui\build\UI.java
> [available] Found: .keystore
>
> jdepend:
>
> BUILD FAILED
> file:C:/dev/projects/JJX/shared/build.xml:835: Could
> not create task or type
> of type: jdepend.
>
> Ant could not find the task or a class this task
> relies upon.
>
> This is common and has a number of causes; the usual
> solutions are to read the manual pages then download
> and
> install needed JAR files, or fix the build file:
> - You have misspelt 'jdepend'.
> Fix: check your spelling.
> - The task needs an external JAR file to execute
> and this is not found at the right place in the
> classpath.
> Fix: check the documentation for dependencies.
> Fix: declare the task.
> - The task is an Ant optional task and optional.jar
> is absent
> Fix: look for optional.jar in ANT_HOME/lib,
> download if needed
> - The task was not built into optional.jar as
> dependent
> libraries were not found at build time.
> Fix: look in the JAR to verify, then rebuild with
> the needed
> libraries, or download a release version from
> apache.org
> - The build file was written for a later version of
> Ant
> Fix: upgrade to at least the latest release version
> of Ant
> - The task is not an Ant core or optional task
> and needs to be declared using <taskdef>.
>
> Remember that for JAR files to be visible to Ant tasks
> implemented
> in ANT_HOME/lib, the files must be in the same
> directory or on the
> classpath
>
> Please neither file bug reports on this problem, nor
> email the
> Ant mailing lists, until all of these causes have been
> explored,
> as this is not an Ant bug.
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.getNotFoundException(UnknownEleme
> nt.java:351)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.makeObject(UnknownElement.java:26
> 7)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.maybeConfigure(UnknownElement.jav
> a:115)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:340)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:309)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:336)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1339)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1255)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:609)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(Main.java:196)
> at
> org.apache.tools.ant.Main.main(Main.java:235)
>
> Total time: 1 second
> C:\dev\projects\JJX\shared>
>
>
> Ant file sniffet looks as follows:
>
> <target name="jdepend" depends="init">
> <jdepend fork="true" format="xml"
> outputfile="${basedir}/${docs.dir}/jdepend/report.xml">
> <!--
> <classespath>
> <pathelement location="${build.dir}" />
> </classespath>
> -->
> <sourcespath>
> <pathelement location="${build.dir}" />
> </sourcespath>
> <classpath>
> <pathelement location="${build.dir}"/>
> <pathelement
> location="${lib.dir}/jdepend.jar"/>
> </classpath>
> </jdepend>
> <style basedir="${basedir}/${docs.dir}/jdepend"
> destdir="${basedir}/${docs.dir}/jdepend"
> includes="report.xml"
> style="${ant.home}/etc/jdepend.xsl" />
> </target>
>
>
> By the way, I'm certain that ${lib.dir}/jdepend.jar
> does EXIST!
>
> Did any one had the same problem or as an idea to
> tackle around. I also tried ant 1.5.4 and 1.6beta2
> with the same result.
>
> Thanks for any hint or help.
> -Robert
>
>
> PS: I recognized the new option -lib in ant 1.6beta2 which allows
> a caller of ant to specify additional jars on the command line.
> However, I did not find any means to express such a call
> inside the ant build file, which would gaive the writer of
> build files to include required knowledge of the build environment
> inside of the build file.
>
>
>
>
>
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