Using antcontrib <if> task via maven-antrun-plugin

Question

My maven java project uses the maven-antrun-plugin to execute a deploy.xml ant script that deploys my app. The deploy.xml uses the <if> task and this seems to be causing the problem;

[INFO] Executing tasks
[taskdef] Could not load definitions from resource net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml. It could not be found.

deploy:
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] An Ant BuildException has occured: The following error occurred while executing this line:
E:\My_Workspace\xxxxxx\xxxxxx\xxxxxxx\deploy.xml:24: Problem: failed to create task or type if
Cause: The name is undefined.
Action: Check the spelling.
Action: Check that any custom tasks/types have been declared.
Action: Check that any <presetdef>/<macrodef> declarations have taken place.

Here is the antrun plugin config from my pom;

<plugin>
    <inherited>false</inherited>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>remote-deploy</id>
            <phase>install</phase>
            <configuration>
                <tasks>
                    <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties" classpathref="maven.plugin.classpath"/>

                        <property name="compile_classpath" refid="maven.compile.classpath" />
                        <property name="runtime_classpath" refid="maven.runtime.classpath" />
                        <property name="plugin_classpath" refid="maven.plugin.classpath" />
                                
                        <echo message="compile classpath: ${compile_classpath}"/>
                        <echo message="runtime classpath: ${runtime_classpath}"/>
                        <echo message="plugin classpath: ${plugin_classpath}"/>

                        <ant antfile="${basedir}/deploy.xml">
                            <target name="deploy" />
                        </ant>
                </tasks>
            </configuration>
            <goals>
                <goal>run</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ant-contrib</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant-contrib</artifactId>
            <version>1.0b3</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant-jsch</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.1</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</plugin>

.. and here is the relevant section from my deploy.xml;

<target name="deploy" if="deploy">
    <if>    <!-- line 24 -->
        <and>

Why I look in my maven repo I can see ant-contrib/ant-contrib/1.0b3/ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar and when I look inside the jar I can see net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties so no problem there.

When I check the values of maven.compile.classpath, maven.compile.classpath and maven.compile.classpath I can't see any reference to antcontrib, could this be the problem? Why don't they appear when antcontrib is defined as a dependancy?

Answer 1

I think it is not a very good idea to add ant to compile classpath in order to run maven plugin.

I use Maven 3.0.4 and it worked by specifying namespace for ant-contrib tags, for example:

<configuration>
  <target>
    <echo message="The first five letters of the alphabet are:"/>
    <ac:for list="a,b,c,d,e" param="letter" xmlns:ac="antlib:net.sf.antcontrib">
      <sequential>
        <echo>Letter @{letter}</echo>
      </sequential>
    </ac:for>
  </target>
</configuration>

My maven-antrun-plugin dependencies:

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>ant-contrib</groupId>
    <artifactId>ant-contrib</artifactId>
    <version>1.0b3</version>
    <exclusions>
      <exclusion>
        <groupId>ant</groupId>
        <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
      </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
    <artifactId>ant-nodeps</artifactId>
    <version>1.8.1</version>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>