As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have come to love using ANT in my development environment. One of the things that I like about it is how well it integrates with my Subversion repository using SVNAnt. If you are not using either ANT or Subversion, you owe it to yourself and your team to check it out.

Here we’ll go over a simple build script that exports application files from the Subversion repository into a local folder in the CFEclipse project. You can then view the following entry on how to ftp that into your production/staging server.
First we need to make sure that your ANT install has the necessary SVNAnt jar files. You can download them here: http://subclipse.tigris.org/svnant.html. Once you unpack the svnant-1.0.0.zip file, you’ll find three jar files: svnant.jar, svnClientAdapter.jar, svnjavahl.jar. Place them on your
[ANTInstall]/lib* folder.

Once you have the jar files in place, you can define them in your build file’s property section like so:
<!– svnant lib –>
<property name=”svnant.lib” value=”lib” />
<property name=”svnant.jar” value=”${svnant.lib}/svnant.jar” />
<property name=”svnClientAdapter.jar” value=”${svnant.lib}/svnClientAdapter.jar” />
<property name=”svnjavahl.jar” value=”${svnant.lib}/svnjavahl.jar” />
Followed by this path definition after all your properties have been defined:

<!– path to the svnant libraries. Usually they will be located in ANT_HOME/lib –>
<path id=”project.classpath”>
<pathelement location=”${svnjavahl.jar}” />
<pathelement location=”${svnant.jar}” />
<pathelement location=”${svnClientAdapter.jar}” />
</path>

Now all you have left to do is add the following task definition:
<!– load the svn task –>
<taskdef resource=”svntask.properties” classpathref=”project.classpath”/>

Now you are all set! You can now call tasks like the following export target:

<!– define properties –>
<!– svn repo url –>
<property name=”svn.url” value=”http://[mysvnhost]/svn/repo/myprojectFiles/” />
<property name=”svn.exportPath” value=”[yourDirectory]:\\[pathToYourCFEclipseProject\\build” />

<target name=”svn.export”>
<echo message=”Exporting application files from svn repository:” />
<input message=”Please enter svn repo username:” addproperty=”svn.username” />
<input message=”Please enter svn repo password:” addproperty=”svn.password” />
<mkdir dir=”${svn.destPath}” />
<svn username=”${svn.username}” password=”${svn.password}”>
<export srcUrl=”${svn.url}” destPath=”${svn.exportPath}” revision=”HEAD” />
</svn>
<echo message=” … finished exporting files.” />
</target>

That’s it. No more running command line tasks to get your subversion commands. For additional info and other SVN tasks you can go to http://subclipse.tigris.org/svnant/svn.html