Stand-alone Version
The yWorks Ant Explorer stand-alone version supports visualization, analysis, and execution of Ant build scripts without the need for any additional software.
Installation
You can install yWorks Ant Explorer automatically via
Java WebStart, or alternatively
by manually downloading and
extracting the Zip file into a local directory (e.g. $user.home/bin/antexplorer).
Usage
The yWorks Ant Explorer stand-alone version can be used in two different ways.
Further information for each view can be found in our documentation.
Viewer
As a simple viewer when it is started using Java WebStart.
Alternatively, as a simple viewer and executor (with certain restrictions regarding
the class path) when the file "antexplorer.jar" is either double-clicked
or executed from the command line via
java -jar antexplorer.jar
Ant Wrapper
As a wrapper for the usual command line "ant".
Instead of typing
ant -f myBuild.xml target
the wrapper script from the yWorks Ant Explorer installation directory is used:
antexplorer -f myBuild.xml target
This does not modify the local Ant installation, but results in the animated visualization of the build script's run.
Restrictions
-
Class path restrictions (not applicable to the Ant wrapper)
Using the stand-alone version may result in problems with custom tasks when the respective classes are not in the class path.
To avoid these problems, either the Ant wrapper can be used or the class path can be adjusted accordingly.
