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<title>Programming Selectors in Apache Ant</title>
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<h2>Programming your own Selectors</h2>
<h3>Selector Programming API</h3>
<p>Want to define your own selectors? It's easy!</p>
<p>First, pick the type of selector that you want to define. There are three types, and a
recipe for each one follows. Chances are you'll want to work with the first one, Custom
Selectors.</p>
<ol>
<li>Custom Selectors
<p>This is the category that Apache Ant provides specifically for you to define your own
Selectors. Anywhere you want to use your selector you use
the <code>&lt;custom&gt;</code> element and specify the class name of your selector
within it. See the <a href="selectors.html#customselect">Custom Selectors</a> section of
the Selector page for details. The <code>&lt;custom&gt;</code> element can be used
anywhere the core selectors can be used. It can be contained
within <a href="selectors.html#selectcontainers">Selector Containers</a>, for
example.</p>
<p>To create a new Custom Selector, you have to create a class that
implements <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.ExtendFileSelector</code>.
The easiest way to do that is through the convenience base
class <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseExtendSelector</code>,
which provides all of the methods for supporting <code>&lt;param&gt;</code> tags. First,
override the <code class="code">isSelected()</code> method, and optionally
the <code class="code">verifySettings()</code> method. If your custom selector requires
parameters to be set, you can also override the <code class="code">setParameters()</code>
method and interpret the parameters that are passed in any way you like. Several of the core
selectors demonstrate how to do that because they can also be used as custom selectors.</p>
<li>Core Selectors
<p>These are the selectors used by Ant itself. To implement one of these, you will have
to alter some of the classes contained within Ant.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First, create a class that
implements <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.FileSelector</code>.
You can either choose to implement all methods yourself from scratch, or you can
extend <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelector</code>
instead, a convenience class that provides reasonable default behaviour for many
methods.</p>
<p>There is only one method required. <code class="code">public boolean isSelected(File
basedir, String filename, File file)</code> is the real purpose of the whole
exercise. It returns <q>true</q> or <q>false</q> depending on whether the given file
should be selected from the list or not.</p>
<p>If you are
using <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelector</code> there
are also some predefined behaviours you can take advantage of. Any time you encounter a
problem when setting attributes or adding tags, you can
call <code class="code">setError(String errmsg)</code> and the class will know that
there is a problem. Then, at the top of your <code class="code">isSelected()</code>
method call <code class="code">validate()</code> and a <code>BuildException</code> will
be thrown with the contents of your error
message. The <code class="code">validate()</code> method also gives you a last chance to
check your settings for consistency because it
calls <code class="code">verifySettings()</code>. Override this method and
call <code class="code">setError()</code> within it if you detect any problems in how
your selector is set up.</p>
<p>You may also want to override <code class="code">toString()</code>.</p></li>
<li>Put an <code class="code">add()</code> method for your selector
in <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.SelectorContainer</code>.
This is an interface, so you will also have to add an implementation for the method in
the classes which implement it,
namely <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.AbstractFileSet</code>, <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.MatchingTask</code>
and <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelectorContainer</code>.
Once it is in there, it will be available everywhere that core selectors are
appropriate.</li>
</ul>
<li>Selector Containers
<p>Got an idea for a new Selector Container? Creating a new one is no problem:</p>
<ul>
<li>Create a new class that
implements <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.SelectorContainer</code>.
This will ensure that your new Container can access any new selectors that come
along. Again, there is a convenience class available for you
called <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelectorContainer</code>.</li>
<li>Implement the <code class="code">public boolean isSelected(String filename, File
file)</code> method to do the right thing. Chances are you'll want to iterate over the
selectors under you, so use <code class="code">selectorElements()</code> to get an
iterator that will do that.</li>
<li>Again, put an <code class="code">add()</code> method for your container
in <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.SelectorContainer</code> and
its implementations <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.AbstractFileSet</code>
and <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelectorContainer</code>.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<h3>Testing Selectors</h3>
<p>For a robust component (and selectors are (Project)Components) tests are necessary. For
testing Tasks we use JUnit Tests and Rules&mdash;more
specific <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.BuildFileRule extends
org.junit.rules.ExternalResource</code>. Some of its features like configure the (test) project
by reading its buildfile and execute targets we need for selector tests also. Therefore we use
that BuildFileRule. But testing selectors requires some more work: having a set of files,
instantiate and configure the selector, check the selection work and more. Because we usually
extend <code class="code">BaseExtendSelector</code> its features have to be tested also
(e.g. <code class="code">setError()</code>).</p>
<p>That's why we have a test rule for doing our selector
tests: <code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelectorRule</code>.</p>
<p>This class extends ExternalResource and therefore can included in the set of Ant's unit
tests. It holds an instance of preconfigured BuildFileRule. Configuration is done by parsing
the <samp>src/etc/testcases/types/selectors.xml</samp>. BaseSelectorRule then gives us
helper methods for handling multiple selections.</p>
<p>Because the term "testcase" or "testenvironment" are so often used, this special
testenvironment got a new name: <em>bed</em>. The setup and cleanup of the bed is all
handled by the BaseSelectorRule so any test only has to handle the actual test scenarios</p>
<p>A usual test scenario is:</p>
<ol>
<li>instantiate the selector</li>
<li>configure the selector</li>
<li>let the selector do some work</li>
<li>verify the work</li>
</ol>
<p>An example test would be:</p>
<pre>
package org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors;
public class MySelectorTest {
@Rule
public final BaseSelectorRule selectorRule = new BaseSelectorRule();
@Test
public void testCase1() {
// Configure the selector
MySelector s = new MySelector();
s.addParam("key1", "value1");
s.addParam("key2", "value2");
s.setXX(true);
s.setYY("a value");
// do the tests
assertEquals("FTTTTTTTT", selectorRule.selectionString(s));
}
}</pre>
<p>As an example of an error JUnit could log</p>
<pre>
[junit] FAILED
[junit] Error for files: <span style="color:blue">.;copy.filterset.filtered;tar/gz/asf-logo.gif.tar.gz</span>
[junit] expected:&lt;<span style="color:blue">FTTTFTTTF...</span>&gt; but was:&lt;TTTTTTTTT...&gt;
[junit] junit.framework.ComparisonFailure: Error for files: .;copy.filterset.filtered;tar/gz/asf-logo.gif.tar.gz
[junit] expected:&lt;FTTTFTTTF...&gt; but was:&lt;TTTTTTTTT...&gt;
[junit] at junit.framework.Assert.assertEquals(Assert.java:81)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.types.selectors.BaseSelectorTest.performTest(BaseSelectorTest.java:194)</pre>
<p>Described above the test class should provide a <code class="code">getInstance()</code>
method. But that isn't used here. The used <code class="code">getSelector()</code> method is
implemented in the base class and gives an instance of an Ant Project to the selector. This is
usually done inside normal build file runs, but not inside this special environment, so this
method gives the selector the ability to use its own Project object
(<code class="code">getProject()</code>), for example for logging.</p>
<h3>Logging</h3>
<p>During development and maybe later you sometimes need the output of information. Therefore
Logging is needed. Because the selector extends BaseExtendSelector or directly BaseSelector it
is an Ant <code class="code">DataType</code> and therefore
a <code class="code">ProjectComponent</code>.<br/> That means that you have access to the
project object and its logging capability. <code class="code">ProjectComponent</code> itself
provides <code class="code">log()</code> methods which will do the access to the project
instance. Logging is therefore done simply with:</p>
<pre>log("message");</pre>
<p>or</p>
<pre>log("message", loglevel);</pre>
<p>where the <code>loglevel</code> is one of the values</p>
<ul>
<li><code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.Project.MSG_ERR</code></li>
<li><code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.Project.MSG_WARN</code></li>
<li><code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.Project.MSG_INFO</code> (default)</li>
<li><code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.Project.MSG_VERBOSE</code></li>
<li><code class="code">org.apache.tools.ant.Project.MSG_DEBUG</code></li>
</ul>
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