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<html>
<head>
<title>XmlProperty Task</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../stylesheets/antmanual.css">
</head>
<body>
<h2><a name="xmlproperty">XmlProperty</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
Loads property values from a well-formed xml file. There are no other restrictions
than "well-formed". You can choose the layout you want. For example this XML property file:
<pre>
&lt;root&gt;
&lt;properties&gt;
&lt;foo&gt;bar&lt;/foo&gt;
&lt;/properties&gt;
&lt;/root&gt;
</pre>
is roughly equivalent to this Java property file:
<pre>
root.properties.foo = bar
</pre>
<p>
By default, this load
does <em>no</em> processing of the input. In particular, unlike the
<a href="property.html">Property task</a>, property references
(i.e., <samp>${foo}</samp>) are not resolved.
<p>
<a name="semanticAttributes">
<h3>Semantic Attributes</h3>
</a>
Input processing can be enabled by using the <b>semanticAttributes</b>
attribute. If this attribute is set to <i>true</i> (its default is
<i>false</i>), the following processing occurs as the input XML file
is loaded:
<ul>
<li>Property references are resolved.</li>
<li>The following attriubtes are treated differently:
<ul>
<li><b>id</b>: The property is associated with the given id value.</li>
<li><b>location</b>: The property is treated as a file location</li>
<li><b>refid</b>: The property is set to the value of the
referenced property.</li>
<li><b>value</b>: The property is set to the value indicated.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="../using.html#path">Path-like Structures</a> can be defined
by use of the following attributes:
<ul>
<li><b>pathid</b>: The given id is used to identify a path. The
nested XML tag name is ignored. Child elements can be used
(XML tag names are ignored) to identify elements of the path.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
For example, with semantic attribute processing enabled, this XML property
file:
<pre>
&lt;root&gt;
&lt;properties&gt;
&lt;foo location="bar"/&gt;
&lt;quux&gt;${root.properties.foo}&lt;/quux&gt;
&lt;/properties&gt;
&lt;/root&gt;
</pre>
is roughly equivalent to the following fragments in a build.xml file:
<pre>
&lt;property name="root.properties.foo" location="bar"/&gt;
&lt;property name="root.properties.quux" value="${root.properties.foo}"/&gt;
</pre>
</p>
<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">file</td>
<td valign="top">The XML file to parse.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">prefix</td>
<td valign="top">The prefix to prepend to each property</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">keepRoot</td>
<td valign="top">Keep the xml root tag as the
first value in the property name.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>true</i>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">validate</td>
<td valign="top">Validate the input file (e.g. by a DTD). Otherwise the XML must only be well-formed.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">collapseAttributes</td>
<td valign="top">Treat attributes as nested elements.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">semanticAttributes</td>
<td valign="top">Enable special handling of certain attribute names.
See the <a href="#semanticAttributes">Semantic Attributes</a>
section for more information.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">includeSemanticAttribute</td>
<td valign="top">Include the semantic attribute name
as part of the property name. Ignored if
<i>semanticAttributes</i> is not set to <i>true</i>.
See the <a href="#semanticAttributes">Semantic Attributes</a>
section for more information.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">rootDirectory</td>
<td valign="top">The directory to use for resolving file references. Ignored
if <i>semanticAttributes</i> is not set to <i>true</i>.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>${basedir}</i>.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a name="examples">
<h3>Examples</h3>
</a>
<h4>Non-semantic Attributes</h4>
<p>Here is an example xml file that does not have any semantic attributes.</p>
<pre>
&lt;root-tag myattr="true"&gt;
&lt;inner-tag someattr="val"&gt;Text&lt;/inner-tag&gt;
&lt;a2&gt;&lt;a3&gt;&lt;a4&gt;false&lt;/a4&gt;&lt;/a3&gt;&lt;/a2&gt;
&lt;/root-tag&gt;
</pre>
<h5>default loading</h5>
<p>This entry in a build file:
<pre> &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" /&gt;</pre>
is equivalent to the following properties:
<pre>
root-tag(myattr)=true
root-tag.inner-tag=Text
root-tag.inner-tag(someattr)=val
root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
</pre>
<h5>collapseAttributes=false</h5>
<p>This entry in a build file:
<pre> &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" collapseAttributes="true"/&gt;</pre>
is equivalent to the following properties:
<pre>
root-tag.myattr=true
root-tag.inner-tag=Text
root-tag.inner-tag.someatt=val
root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
</pre>
<h5>keepRoot=false</h5>
<p>This entry in a build file:
<pre> &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" keepRoot="false"/&gt;</pre>
is equivalent to the following properties:
<pre>
inner-tag=Text
inner-tag(someattr)=val
a2.a3.a4=false
</pre>
<h4>Semantic Attributes</h4>
<p>Here is an example xml file that has semantic attributes.</p>
<pre>
&lt;root-tag&gt;
&lt;version value="0.0.1"/&gt;
&lt;build folder="build"&gt;
&lt;classes id="build.classes" location="${build.folder}/classes"/&gt;
&lt;reference refid="build.classes"/&gt;
&lt;/build&gt;
&lt;compile&gt;
&lt;classpath pathid="compile.classpath"&gt;
&lt;pathelement location="${build.classes}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
&lt;/compile&gt;
&lt;run-time&gt;
&lt;jars&gt;*.jar&lt;/jars&gt;
&lt;classpath pathid="run-time.classpath"&gt;
&lt;path refid="compile.classpath"/&gt;
&lt;pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
&lt;/run-time&gt;
&lt;/root-tag&gt;
</pre>
<h5>default loading (semanticAttributes=true)</h5>
<p>This entry in a build file:
<pre> &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml"
semanticAttributes="true"/&gt;</pre>
is equivalent to the following entries in a build file:
<pre>
&lt;property name="version" value="0.0.1"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.folder" value="build"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.classes" location="${build.folder}/classes" id="build.classes"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.reference" refid="build.classes"/&gt;
&lt;property name="run-time.jars" value="*.jar/&gt;
&lt;classpath id="compile.classpath"&gt;
&lt;pathelement location="${build.classes}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
&lt;classpath id="run-time.classpath"&gt;
&lt;path refid="compile.classpath"/&gt;
&lt;pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
</pre>
<h5>includeSemanticAttribute="true"</h5>
<p>This entry in a build file:
<pre> &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml"
semanticAttributes="true"
includeSemanticAttribute="true"/&gt;
</pre>
is equivalent to the following entries in a build file:
<pre>
&lt;property name="version.value" value="0.0.1"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.folder" value="build"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.classes.location" location="${build.folder}/classes"/&gt;
&lt;property name="build.reference.refid" refid="build.location"/&gt;
&lt;property name="run-time.jars" value="*.jar/&gt;
&lt;classpath id="compile.classpath"&gt;
&lt;pathelement location="${build.classes}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
&lt;classpath id="run-time.classpath"&gt;
&lt;path refid="compile.classpath"/&gt;
&lt;pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/&gt;
&lt;/classpath&gt;
</pre>
<hr>
<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2002-2003 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>
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</html>