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[[antbuilder]]
= AntBuilder

[NOTE]
Here we describe `AntBuilder` which lets you write Ant build scripts
in Groovy rather than XML. You may also be interested in using Groovy
from Ant using the <<groovy-ant-task.adoc#ThegroovyAntTask-groovyc,Groovy Ant task>>.

Despite being primarily a build tool, http://ant.apache.org/[Apache Ant] is
a very practical tool for manipulating files including zip files, copy, resource processing, and more.
But if ever you’ve been working with a `build.xml` file or some _Jelly script_
and found yourself a little restricted by all those pointy brackets, or
found it a bit weird using XML as a scripting language and wanted
something a little cleaner and more straight forward, then maybe Ant
scripting with Groovy might be what you're after.

Groovy has a helper class called `AntBuilder` which makes the scripting
of Ant tasks really easy; allowing a real scripting language to be used
for programming constructs (variables, methods, loops, logical
branching, classes etc). It still looks like a neat concise version of
Ant's XML without all those pointy brackets; though you can mix and
match this markup inside your script. Ant itself is a collection of jar
files. By adding them to your classpath, you can easily use them within
Groovy as is. We believe using `AntBuilder` leads to more concise and
readily understood syntax.

`AntBuilder` exposes Ant tasks directly using the convenient builder notation that
we are used to in Groovy. Here is the most basic example, which is printing a message
on the standard output:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=example_echo,indent=0]
----
<1> creates an instance of `AntBuilder`
<2> executes the `echo` task with the message in parameter

Imagine that you need to create a ZIP file. It can be as simple as:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=create_zip_builder,indent=0]
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=create_zip_zip,indent=0]
----

In the next example, we demonstrate the use of `AntBuilder` to copy a list of files
using a classical Ant pattern directly in Groovy:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=copy_files,indent=0]
----

Another example would be iterating over a list of files matching a specific pattern:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=filescanner,indent=0]
----

Or executing a JUnit test:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=run_junit,indent=0]
----

We can even go further by compiling and executing a Java file directly from Groovy:

[source,groovy]
----
include::{rootProjectDir}/subprojects/groovy-ant/src/spec/test/builder/AntBuilderSpecTest.groovy[tags=compile_java,indent=0]
----

It is worth mentioning that `AntBuilder` is included in http://gradle.org/[Gradle], so you can use it in Gradle
just like you would in Groovy. Additional documentation can be found in the
http://gradle.org/docs/current/userguide/ant.html[Gradle manual].