How to run ant from an Eclipse plugin, send output to an Eclipse console, and capture the build result (success/failure)?

Question

From within an Eclipse plugin, I'd like to run an Ant build script. I also want to display the Ant output to the user, by displaying it in an Eclipse console. Finally, I also want to wait for the Ant build to be finished, and capture the result: did the build succeed or fail?

I found three ways to run an Ant script from eclipse:

• Instantiate an org.eclipse.ant.core.AntRunner, call some setters and call run() or run(IProgressMonitor). The result is either normal termination (indicating success), or a CoreException with an IStatus containing a BuildException (indicating failure), or else something else went wrong. However, I don't see the Ant output anywhere.
• Instantiate an org.eclipse.ant.core.AntRunner and call run(Object), passing a String[] containing the command line arguments. The result is either normal termination (indication success), or an InvocationTargetException (indicating failure), or else something else went wrong. The Ant output is sent to Eclipse's stdout, it seems; it is not visible in Eclipse itself.
• Call DebugPlugin.getDefault().getLaunchManager(), then on that call getLaunchConfigurationType(IAntLaunchConfigurationConstants.ID_ANT_BUILDER_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION_TYPE), then on that set attribute "org.eclipse.ui.externaltools.ATTR_LOCATION" to the build file name (and attribute DebugPlugin.ATTR_CAPTURE_OUTPUT to true) and finally call launch(). The Ant output is shown in an Eclipse console, but I have no idea how to capture the build result (success/failure) in my code. Or how to wait for termination of the launch, even.

Is there any way to have both console output and capture the result?

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

I would like to do the same. I have found the following article. It may be outdated, but it might work.

http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.tools/msg62752.html

Answer 2

Here is what you are looking for: http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_write_to_the_console_from_a_plug-in%3F

Answer 3

I realize this is an old post, but I was able to do exactly what you want in one of my plugins. If it doesn't help you at this point, maybe it will help someone else. I originally did this in 3.2, but it has been updated for 3.6 API changes...

// show the console
final IWorkbenchPage activePage = PlatformUI.getWorkbench()
        .getActiveWorkbenchWindow()
        .getActivePage();
activePage.showView(IConsoleConstants.ID_CONSOLE_VIEW);

// let launch manager handle ant script so output is directed to Console view
final ILaunchManager manager = DebugPlugin.getDefault().getLaunchManager();
ILaunchConfigurationType type = manager.getLaunchConfigurationType(IAntLaunchConstants.ID_ANT_LAUNCH_CONFIGURATION_TYPE);
final ILaunchConfigurationWorkingCopy workingCopy = type.newInstance(null, [*** GIVE YOUR LAUNCHER A NAME ***]);
workingCopy.setAttribute(ILaunchManager.ATTR_PRIVATE, true);
workingCopy.setAttribute(IExternalToolConstants.ATTR_LOCATION, [*** PATH TO ANT SCRIPT HERE ***]);
final ILaunch launch = workingCopy.launch(ILaunchManager.RUN_MODE, null);
// make sure the build doesnt fail
final boolean[] buildSucceeded = new boolean[] { true };
((AntProcess) launch.getProcesses()[0]).getStreamsProxy()
        .getErrorStreamMonitor()
        .addListener(new IStreamListener() {
            @Override
            public void streamAppended(String text, IStreamMonitor monitor) {
                if (text.indexOf("BUILD FAILED") > -1) {
                    buildSucceeded[0] = false;
                }
            }
        });
// wait for the launch (ant build) to complete
manager.addLaunchListener(new ILaunchesListener2() {
    public void launchesTerminated(ILaunch[] launches) {
        boolean patchSuccess = false;
        try {
            if (!buildSucceeded[0]) {
                throw new Exception("Build FAILED!");
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < launches.length; i++) {
                if (launches[i].equals(launch)
                        && buildSucceeded[0]
                        && !((IProgressMonitor) launches[i].getProcesses()[0]).isCanceled()) {
                    [*** DO YOUR THING... ***]
                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            [*** DO YOUR THING... ***]
        } finally {
            // get rid of this listener
            manager.removeLaunchListener(this);
            [*** DO YOUR THING... ***]
        }
    }

    public void launchesAdded(ILaunch[] launches) {
    }

    public void launchesChanged(ILaunch[] launches) {
    }

    public void launchesRemoved(ILaunch[] launches) {
    }
});