Apache Ivy is a transitive dependency manager. It is a sub-project of the Apache Ant project, with which Ivy works to resolve project dependencies. An external XML file defines project dependencies and lists the resources necessary to build a project. Ivy then resolves and downloads resources from an artifact repository: either a private repository or one publicly available on the Internet.That is really a good news! Instead of starting all over using maven, now the libraries dependency can be solve via ivy in your existing ant build file. What a relieve! Okay, let's go into the basic of apache ivy. Let's start with the terminology that is use widely when you deal with apache ivy. You can reference this link for more details explanation. For concept of how apache ivy works, read this helpful link.
| terminology | explanation |
|---|---|
| Organisation | An organisation is either a company, an individual, or simply any group of people that produces software. |
| Module | A module is a self-contained, reusable unit of software that, as a whole unit, follows a revision control scheme. |
| Module Descriptor | A module descriptor is a generic way of identifying what describes a module: the identifier (organisation, module name, branch and revision), the published artifacts, possible configurations and their dependencies. |
| Artifact | An artifact is a single file ready for delivery with the publication of a module revision, as a product of development. |
| Type of an artifact | The artifact type is a category of a particular kind of artifact specimen. |
| Artifact file name extension | In some cases the artifact type already implies its file name extension, but not always. |
| Module Revision | A unique revision number or version name is assigned to each delivered unique state of a module. |
| Branch | A branch corresponds to the standard meaning of a branch (or sometimes stream) in source control management tools. |
| Status of a revision | A module's status indicates how stable a module revision can be considered. |
| Configurations of a module | A module configuration is a way to use or construct a module. |
| Ivy Settings | Ivy settings files are xml files used to configure ivy to indicate where the modules can be found and how. |
| Repository | What is called a repository in Ivy is a distribution site location where Ivy is able to find your required modules' artifacts and descriptors (i.e. Ivy files in most cases). |
when you add the ivy namespace into your ant build file, you can call ivy task in ant build file. An example of the ivy integration into ant build file as show below.
<project xmlns:ivy="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant" name="go-ivy" default="go">
<!--
this build file is a self contained project: it doesn't require anything else
that ant 1.6.2 or greater and java 1.4 or greater properly installed.
It is used to showcase how easy and straightforward it can be to use Ivy.
This is not an example of the best pratice to use in a project, especially
for the java source code "generation" :-) (see generate-src target)
To run copy this file in an empty directory, open a shell or a command window
in this directory and run "ant". It will download ivy and then use it to resolve
the dependency of the class which is itself "contained" in this build script.
After a successful build run "ant" again and you will see the build will be
much faster.
More information can be found at http://ant.apache.org/ivy/
-->
<!--
here is the version of ivy we will use. change this property to try a newer
version if you want
-->
<property name="ivy.install.version" value="2.4.0"/>
<property name="ivy.jar.dir" value="${basedir}/ivy"/>
<property name="ivy.jar.file" value="${ivy.jar.dir}/ivy.jar"/>
<property name="build.dir" value="build"/>
<property name="src.dir" value="src"/>
<target name="download-ivy" unless="skip.download">
<mkdir dir="${ivy.jar.dir}"/>
<!--
download Ivy from web site so that it can be used even without any special installation
-->
<echo message="installing ivy..."/>
<get src="https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/ivy/ivy/${ivy.install.version}/ivy-${ivy.install.version}.jar" dest="${ivy.jar.file}" usetimestamp="true"/>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: install-ivy
this target is not necessary if you put ivy.jar in your ant lib directory
if you already have ivy in your ant lib, you can simply remove this
target and the dependency the 'go' target has on it
=================================
-->
<target name="install-ivy" depends="download-ivy" description="--> install ivy">
<!--
try to load ivy here from local ivy dir, in case the user has not already dropped
it into ant's lib dir (note that the latter copy will always take precedence).
We will not fail as long as local lib dir exists (it may be empty) and
ivy is in at least one of ant's lib dir or the local lib dir.
-->
<path id="ivy.lib.path">
<fileset dir="${ivy.jar.dir}" includes="*.jar"/>
</path>
<taskdef resource="org/apache/ivy/ant/antlib.xml" uri="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant" classpathref="ivy.lib.path"/>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: go
Go ivy, go!
=================================
-->
<target name="go" depends="install-ivy, generate-src" description="--> resolve dependencies, compile and run the project">
<echo message="using ivy to resolve commons-lang 2.1..."/>
<!--
here comes the magic line: asks ivy to resolve a dependency on
commons-lang 2.1 and to build an ant path with it from its cache
-->
<ivy:cachepath organisation="commons-lang" module="commons-lang" revision="2.1" pathid="lib.path.id" inline="true"/>
<echo message="compiling..."/>
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
<javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}" classpathref="lib.path.id"/>
<echo>
We are now ready to execute our simple program with its dependency on commons-lang. Let's go!
</echo>
<java classname="example.Hello">
<classpath>
<path refid="lib.path.id"/>
<path location="${build.dir}"/>
</classpath>
</java>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: generate-src
'Generates' the class source. It actually just echo a simple java
source code to a file. In real life this file would already be
present on your file system, and this target wouldn't be necessary.
=================================
-->
<target name="generate-src">
<mkdir dir="${src.dir}/example"/>
<echo file="${src.dir}/example/Hello.java">
package example; import org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils; public class Hello { public static void main(String[] args) { String message = "hello ivy !"; System.out.println("standard message : " + message); System.out.println("capitalized by " + WordUtils.class.getName() + " : " + WordUtils.capitalizeFully(message)); } }
</echo>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: clean
=================================
-->
<target name="clean" description="--> clean the project">
<delete includeemptydirs="true" quiet="true">
<fileset dir="${src.dir}"/>
<fileset dir="${build.dir}"/>
</delete>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: clean-ivy
=================================
-->
<target name="clean-ivy" description="--> clean the ivy installation">
<delete dir="${ivy.jar.dir}"/>
</target>
<!--
=================================
target: clean-cache
=================================
-->
<target name="clean-cache" depends="install-ivy" description="--> clean the ivy cache">
<ivy:cleancache/>
</target>
</project>
As the saying goes, try it and you will understand better how apache ivy help you in your ant build process. Once you get a hang of it and you want more advance feature, I suggest you take a look at ivy setting file. This link provide comprehensive coverage of the configuration that you can use in advance use cases.
If you still look for what else you can do with apache ivy, take a look at this link. If you just want to quickly use ivy, you can use ivy as a standalone jar file.
I have not mentioned ivy.xml and i think if you have reach this section, you should know what's ivy.xml file for and what does it contain. I hope you found something useful in this quick tutorial.
