README

PHPAnt is a simple tool, allowing you to replace Apache Ant build.xml files with PHP code.

How to use

The idea behind PHPAnt is very simple and can be seen on the example below.

This is how sample build.xml file from Wikipedia looks when using PHPAnt:

<?php
$ant = new PHPAnt\Ant('Hello', 'compile');
$ant->target(function($ant) {
    $ant->setNodeAttrs(array(
        'name' => 'clean', 'description' => 'remove intermediate files'
    ));
    $ant->delete(array('dir' => 'classes'));
});
$ant->target(function($ant) {
    $ant->setNodeAttrs(
        array('name' => 'clobber', 'depends' => 'clean', 'description' => 'remove all artifact files')
    );

    $ant->delete(array('file' => 'hello.jar'));
});
$ant->target(function($ant) {
    $ant->setNodeAttrs(
        array('name' => 'compile', 'description' => 'compile the Java source code to class files')
    );
    $ant->mkdir(array('dir' => 'classes'));
    $ant->javac(array('srcdir' => '.', 'destdir' => 'classes'));
});
$ant->target(function($ant) {
    $ant->setNodeAttrs(
        array('name' => 'jar', 'depends' => 'compile', 'description' => 'create a Jar file for the application')
    );
    $ant->jar(function ($ant) {
        $ant->setNodeAttrs(
            array('destfile' => 'hello.jar')
        );
        $ant->fileset(array('dir' => 'classes', 'includes' => '**/*.class'));
        $ant->manifest(function($ant) {
            $ant->attribute(array('name' => 'Main-Class', 'value' => 'HelloProgram'));
        });
    });
});
$ant->run();

Builder object provides save(string $filename = 'build.xml') method to save xml file for later use and run(string $target) method for xml file to be execute immediately. Also there are two methods storeValue($key, $value) and getValue($key), that provide access to simple storage, aimed to ease data access from inside of closures (instead of use($foo, $bar) statements).

How is it better, than normal XML files?

In several ways:

When using PHPAnt the idea behind build.xml changes. This is not a file, describing how to build current project in any scenario possible, but a file describing how to do it in current environment, with current fileset and for only specific task. PHP is better suited to make these kind of decisions.
Using PHP open doors to all kinds of xml-nodes reuse - between targets or even projects.
There is no need to write and mantain XML files.

Why not use Phing instead?

Most CI servers come with Ant pre-installed. That means that you get comprehensive list of tasks out of the box in the tool, that will handle building of your project. This includes SSH tasks, parallel script running, gzipping and many more.

Dependencies

PHP >= 5.3.2

License

The code for PHPAnt is distributed under the terms of the MIT license (see LICENSE).

phpant / phpant

Maintainers

Details