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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. --> <html lang="en"> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../stylesheets/style.css"> <title>Input Task</title> </head> <body> <h2 id="input">Input</h2> <h3>Description</h3> <p>Allows user interaction during the build process by prompting for input. To do so, it uses the configured <a href="../inputhandler.html">InputHandler</a>.</p> <p>The prompt can be set via the <var>message</var> attribute or as character data nested into the element.</p> <p>Optionally a set of valid input arguments can be defined via the <var>validargs</var> attribute. <code>Input</code> task will not accept a value that doesn't match one of the predefined.</p> <p>Optionally a property can be created from the value entered by the user. This property can then be used during the following build run. <code>Input</code> then behaves as <a href="property.html">property task</a> which means that existing properties cannot be overridden. <em>Since Apache Ant 1.6</em>, <code><input></code> will not prompt for input if a property should be set by the task that has already been set in the project (and the task wouldn't have any effect).</p> <p>Historically, a regular complaint about this task has been that it echoes characters to the console, this is a critical security defect, we must fix it immediately, etc, etc. This problem was due to the lack in early versions of Java of a (fully functional) facility for handling secure console input. In Java 6 that shortcoming in Java's API was addressed and Ant versions 1.7.1 and 1.8 have added support for Java 6 secure console input feature (see <a href="#handler.type">handler type</a>).</p> <p>IDE behaviour depends upon the IDE: some hang waiting for input, some let you type it in. For this situation, place the password in a (secured) property file and load in before the <code>input</code> task.</p> <h3>Parameters</h3> <table class="attr"> <tr> <th scope="col">Attribute</th> <th scope="col">Description</th> <th scope="col">Required</th> </tr> <tr> <td>message</td> <td>the Message which gets displayed to the user during the build run.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>validargs</td> <td>comma separated String containing valid input arguments. If set, <code>input</code> task will reject any input not defined here. Comparison of input to <var>validargs</var> is case sensitive. If you want <q>a</q> and <q>A</q> to be accepted you will need to define both arguments within <var>validargs</var>.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>addproperty</td> <td>the name of a property to be created from input. Behaviour is equal to <a href="property.html">property task</a> which means that existing properties cannot be overridden.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>defaultvalue</td> <td>Defines the default value of the property to be created from input. Property value will be set to default if no input is received.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> </table> <h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3> <h4>Handler</h4> <p><em>Since Ant 1.7</em>, a nested <code><handler></code> element can be used to specify an <code>InputHandler</code>, so that different <code>InputHandler</code>s may be used among different <code>Input</code> tasks.</p> <table class="attr"> <tr> <th scope="col">Attribute</th> <th scope="col">Description</th> <th scope="col">Required</th> </tr> <tr id="handler.type"> <td>type</td> <td>one of <q>default</q>, <q>propertyfile</q>, <q>greedy</q>, or <q>secure</q> (<em>since Ant 1.8</em>).</td> <td rowspan="3">One of these</td> </tr> <tr> <td>refid</td> <td class="left">Reference to an <code>InputHandler</code> defined elsewhere in the project.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>classname</td> <td class="left">The name of an <code>InputHandler</code> subclass.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>classpath</td> <td>The classpath to use with <var>classname</var>.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>classpathref</td> <td>The refid of a classpath to use with <var>classname</var>.</td> <td>No</td> </tr> <tr> <td>loaderref</td> <td>The refid of a classloader to use with <var>classname</var>. </td> <td>No</td> </tr> </table> <p>The classpath can also be specified by means of one or more nested <code><classpath></code> elements.</p> <h3>Examples</h3> <p>Pause the build run until return key is pressed when using the <a href="../inputhandler.html#defaulthandler">default InputHandler</a>, the concrete behavior is defined by the <code>InputHandler</code> implementation you use.</p> <pre><input/></pre> <p>Display the message <q>Press Return key to continue...</q> and pause the build run until return key is pressed (again, the concrete behavior is implementation dependent).</p> <pre><input>Press Return key to continue...</input></pre> <p>Display the message <q>Press Return key to continue...</q> and pause the build run until return key is pressed (see above).</p> <pre><input message="Press Return key to continue..."/></pre> <p>Display the message <q>All data is going to be deleted from DB continue (y/n)?</q> and require <q>y</q> to continue build or <q>n</q> to exit build with following message <q>Build aborted by user.</q>.</p> <pre> <input message="All data is going to be deleted from DB continue (y/n)?" validargs="y,n" addproperty="do.delete"/> <condition property="do.abort"> <equals arg1="n" arg2="${do.delete}"/> </condition> <fail if="do.abort">Build aborted by user.</fail> </pre> <p>Display the message <q>Please enter db-username:</q> and set the property <code>db.user</code> to the value entered by the user.</p> <pre> <input message="Please enter db-username:" addproperty="db.user"/></pre> <p>Same as above, but set <code>db.user</code> to the value <q>Scott-Tiger</q> if the user enters no value (simply presses <q>return</q>).</p> <pre> <input message="Please enter db-username:" addproperty="db.user" defaultvalue="Scott-Tiger"/></pre> </body> </html>