Apache ANT – a Tool for Automating Software Build Processes and its Importance in Testing – Selenium Tutorial #23

In the preceding tutorial, we endeavored to introduce you to the notion of synonyms and common approaches. We also elaborated the benefits derived from synonyms like reusability. Additionally, we provided insightful measures towards the development of synonyms and their accessibility.

Within this present tutorial in the Selenium automation series, we will shed light on a construction tool known as “Apache Ant”. We will thoroughly scrutinize its utility and significance together with the practical method.

Please be aware that this tutorial is confined to the testing facets of employing Apache Ant.

Apache Ant is a highly admired and conventional construction tool of our era. Ant is a freely available Java-based build tool furnished by the Apache Software Foundation and distributed under a GNU license. Apache Ant plays a crucial part in the daily routine of both developers and testers. The tool has considerable power to morph development code into deployment applications.

Ant is a tool that streamlines the process of building software. Ant’s utility extends beyond code compilation to include packaging, testing, and much more, all possible in straightforward steps.

The tool operates based on targets and dependencies defined in the XML files. Ant libraries are employed to construct applications. These libraries encapsulate a set of predefined tasks for archiving, compiling, executing, documenting, deploying, testing, among numerous other targets. Additionally, Ant permits users to generate their unique tasks by implementing their libraries.

Ant is primarily utilized with Java Applications, but it may also be adapted for applications constructed on different languages depending on the additional support.

The crucial aspect of employing Ant is that it spares the need to write extra code to build the application. Instead, the entire procedure is defined by targets, which are fundamentally XML elements.

Advantages of Apache Ant

• User-Friendly – The tool offers a broad spectrum of tasks that fulfill nearly all the build necessities of the user.
• Platform-Independent – As Ant is composed in Java, it is a platform-independent building tool. The only necessity for the tool is JDK.
• Expandability – Since the tool is written in Java and the origin code is freely obtainable, users enjoy the privilege of expanding the abilities of the tool by scripting Java code to add a task to Ant Libraries.

Characteristics of Apache Ant

• Able to compile Java-based applications
• Able to generate Java Doc
• Able to create war, jar, zip, tar files
• Able to duplicate files to various locations
• Able to delete or move files
• Able to dispatch Emails to stakeholders
• Compatible with JUnit 3, Junit 4, TestNG, etc.
• Can convert XML-oriented test reports to HTML reports
• Able to create directories
• Can check out code from version control systems (SVN, GIT, CVS, etc.)
• Can execute test scripts and test suites

Configuring the Environment

Let’s illustrate the whole setup procedure step by step.

Step 1: Download Apache Ant

The primary step is to download the compressed folder of the latest Apache Ant version from the repository. The distribution can be found at “http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi”.

Step 2: Unzip the Folder and Configure Environment Variables

Unzip the compressed folder to any preferred location on the local file system.

Before setting up the environment for Ant, it is necessary to install and set up JDK on your system. Assuming that JDK is already installed and set, we can proceed with the Ant Setup.

Establish an environment variable known as “ANT_HOME” and assign its value to the location of the Ant folder. Refer to the following screenshot for the same.

(Click to enlarge image)

Modify the Path variable to add the location of the bin folder, i.e., the compiler location.

The user can also affirm the successful Ant installation by typing the “ant -version” command in the command prompt. The user will be able to see the following screen for a successful installation.

Step 3: Download and Extract JUnit Jar

Download the newest version of the JUnit jar from “https://github.com/junit-team/junit/wiki/Download-and-Install” and configure the project’s build path in Eclipse and include the jar as an external library. Refer to the following illustration.

Hence, no additional installation is necessitated to employ Apache Ant in conjunction with JUnit and Selenium WebDriver to build, execute, and report the test scripts.

Note: Be sure to add the “ant-junit4.jar” jar file, which can be discovered within the library folder of the Ant software distribution.

Sample Build.xml

The subsequent step is to create the project’s build file. The build file is simply a collection of XML elements. It is noteworthy that one build file can be associated with a single project, in other words, one build file per project or vice versa. The build file is generally situated in the project’s root/base folder, however, the user is free to decide the build’s location based on their preference. Besides, the user is allowed to rename the build file if required.

Every build file must contain one project and at least one target element. Refer to the sample build.xml

<

pre class=”brush: xml; title: ; notranslate” title=””>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="Learning_Selenium" default="junitReport" basedir=".">
<property name="src" value="./src" />
<property name="lib" value="./lib" />
<property name="bin" value="./bin" />
<property name="report" value="./report" />
<property name="test.dir" value="./src/com/tests" />
<path id="Learning_Selenium.classpath">
<pathelement location="${bin}" />
<fileset dir="${lib}">
<include name="**/*.jar" />
</fileset>
</path>
<echo message="—————————————————————–" />
<echo message="——————–Selenium Learning Tests———————-" />
<echo message="—————————————————————–" />
<target name="init" description="Delete the binary folder and create it again">
<echo message="———-Delete the binary folder and create it again———-" />
<delete dir="${bin}" />
<!– Create the time stamp –>
<tstamp>
<format property="lastUpdated" pattern="dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss" />
</tstamp>
<!– Create the build directory structure used by compile –>
<mkdir dir="${bin}" />
</target>
<target name="compile" depends="init" description="Compile the source files">
<echo message="———-Compile the source files———-" />
<javac source="1.7" srcdir="${src}" fork="true" destdir="${bin}" includeantruntime="false" debug="true" debuglevel="lines