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<title>Typedef Task</title>
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<h2><a name="typedef">Typedef</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
Adds a task or a data type definition to the current project
such that this new type or task can be used in the current project.
</p>
<p>
A Task is any class that extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task or
can be adapted as a Task using an adapter class.
</p>
<p>
Data types are things like <a href="../using.html#path">paths</a> or
<a href="../Types/fileset.html">filesets</a> that can be defined at
the project level and referenced via their ID attribute.
Custom data types usually need custom tasks to put them to good use.
</p>
<p>
Two attributes are needed to make a definition: the name that
identifies this data type uniquely, and the full name of the class
(including its package name) that implements this type.
</p>
<p>
You can also define a group of definitions at once using the file or
resource attributes. These attributes point to files in the format of
Java property files or an xml format.
</p>
<p>
For property files each line defines a single data type in the
format:</p>
<pre>
typename=fully.qualified.java.classname
</pre>
<p>
The xml format is described in the
<a href="../Types/antlib.html">Antlib</a> section.
</p>
<p>If you are defining tasks or types that share the same classpath
with multiple taskdef or typedef tasks, the corresponding classes
will be loaded by different
Java <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/ClassLoader.html">ClassLoaders</a>.
Two classes with the same name loaded via different ClassLoaders
are not the same class from the point of view of the Java VM, they
don't share static variables and instances of these classes can't
access private methods or attributes of instances defined by "the
other class" of the same name. They don't even belong to the same
Java package and can't access package private code, either.</p>
<p>The best way to load several tasks/types that are supposed to
cooperate with each other via shared Java code is to use the
resource attribute and an antlib descriptor. If this is not
possible, the second best option is to use the loaderref attribute
and specify the same name for each and every typedef/taskdef -
this way the classes will share the same ClassLoader. Note that
the typedef/taskdef tasks must use identical classpath definitions
(this includes the order of path components) for the loaderref
attribute to work.</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">name</td>
<td valign="top">the name of the data type</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">Yes, unless the file or resource type
attributes have been specified.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">classname</td>
<td valign="top">the full class name implementing the data type</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">Yes, unless file or resource
have been specified.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">file</td>
<td valign="top">Name of the file to load definitions from.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">resource</td>
<td valign="top">
Name of the resource to load definitions from.
If multiple resources by this name are found along the classpath,
and the format is "properties", the first resource will be loaded;
otherwise all such resources will be loaded.
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">format</td>
<td valign="top">The format of the file or resource. The values
are "properties" or "xml". If the value is "properties" the file/resource
is a property file contains name to classname pairs. If the value
is "xml", the file/resource is an xml file/resource structured according
to <a href="../Types/antlib.html">Antlib</a>.
The default is "properties" unless the file/resource name ends with
".xml", in which case the format attribute will have the value "xml".
<b>since Apache Ant 1.6</b>
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">classpath</td> <td valign="top">the classpath to
use when looking up <code>classname</code>.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">classpathref</td>
<td valign="top">
a reference to a classpath to use when looking up <code>classname</code>.
</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">loaderRef</td>
<td valign="top">the name of the loader that is
used to load the class, constructed from the specified classpath. Use
this to allow multiple tasks/types to be loaded with the same loader,
so they can call each other. <b>since Ant 1.5</b> </td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">onerror</td>
<td valign="top">The action to take if there was a failure in defining the
type. The values are <i>fail</i>: cause a build exception; <i>report</i>:
output a warning, but continue; <i>ignore</i>: do nothing.
<b>since Ant 1.6</b>
An additional value is <i>failall</i>: cause all behavior of fail,
as well as a build exception for the resource or file attribute
if the resource or file is not found. <b>since Ant 1.7</b>
The default is <i>fail</i>.
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">adapter</td>
<td valign="top">A class that is used to adapt the defined class to
another interface/class. The adapter class must implement the interface
"org.apache.tools.ant.TypeAdapter". The adapter class will be used
to wrap the defined class unless the defined class implements/extends
the class defined by the attribute "adaptto".
If "adaptto" is not set, the defined class will always be wrapped.
<b>since Ant 1.6</b>
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">adaptto</td>
<td valign="top">This attribute is used in conjunction with the
adapter attribute.
If the defined class does not implement/extend the interface/class
specified by this attribute, the adaptor class will be used
to wrap the class. <b>since Ant 1.6</b>
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">uri</td>
<td valign="top">
The uri that this definition should live in.
<b>since Ant 1.6</b>
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3>
<h4>classpath</h4>
<p><code>Typedef</code>'s <i>classpath</i> attribute is a
<a href="../using.html#path">path-like structure</a> and can also be set
via a nested <i>classpath</i> element.</p>
<h3>Examples</h3>
The following fragment defines define a type called <i>urlset</i>.
<pre>
<typedef name="urlset" classname="com.mydomain.URLSet"/> </pre>
The data type is now available to Ant. The
class <code>com.mydomain.URLSet</code> implements this type.</p>
<p>
Assuming a class <i>org.acme.ant.RunnableAdapter</i> that
extends Task and implements <i>org.apache.tools.ant.TypeAdapter</i>,
and in the execute method invokes <i>run</i> on the proxied object,
one may use a Runnable class as an Ant task. The following fragment
defines a task called <i>runclock</i>.
</p>
<pre>
<typedef name="runclock"
classname="com.acme.ant.RunClock"
adapter="org.acme.ant.RunnableAdapter"/>
</pre>
<p>
The following fragment shows the use of the classpathref and
loaderref to load up two definitions.
</p>
<pre>
<path id="lib.path">
<fileset dir="lib" includes="lib/*.jar"/>
</path>
<typedef name="filter1"
classname="org.acme.filters.Filter1"
classpathref="lib.path"
loaderref="lib.path.loader"
/>
<typedef name="filter2"
classname="org.acme.filters.Filter2"
loaderref="lib.path.loader"
/>
</pre>
<p>
If you want to load an antlib into a special xml-namespace, the <tt>uri</tt> attribute
is important:
</p>
<pre>
<project xmlns:antcontrib="antlib:net.sf.antcontrib">
<taskdef uri="antlib:net.sf.antcontrib"
resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml"
classpath="path/to/ant-contrib.jar"/>
</pre>
<p>Here the namespace
declaration <code>xmlns:antcontrib="antlib:net.sf.antcontrib"</code>
allows tasks and types of the AntContrib Antlib to be used with the
<code>antcontrib</code> prefix
like <code><antcontrib:if></code>.
The normal rules of XML namespaces apply and you can declare the
prefix at any element to make it usable for the element it is
declared on as well as all its child elements.</p>
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