How to execute multiple ant targets in maven

Question

Yes, yes, this is a XY type of problem. (I wanted to present it nicer without loosing any information)

In my project when I tried to execute the ANT tasks in maven it gives me the same error that I have in this sample. I took this example from here.

I tried to execute the multiple ant targets using the maven-antrun-plugin as below. But, it always executes the below most target only (when I don't mention depends attibute). When I use it, it gives following exception :

Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-antrun-plugin:1.7:run (default) on project jibx-mvn-demo: An Ant BuildException has occured: Target "compile" does not exist in the project "maven-antrun-". It is used from target "myDAO". -> [Help 1]

pom.xml

    <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.7</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>install</phase>
                    <configuration>
                        <target name="clean">
                            <echo>Clean up my working directory to be nice and sparkly</echo>
                        </target>
                        <target name="initDAO">
                            <echo>Initialize stuff for my DAO build</echo>
                            <echo>Maybe setup some properties?</echo>
                        </target>
                        <target name="makedir" depends="initDAO">
                            <echo>I need my directories for building.</echo>
                            <echo>But first, I need to setup stuff"</echo>
                        </target>
                        <target name="compile" depends="makedir">
                            <echo>I need to compile my dao source"</echo>
                            <echo>But first, I need to make the necessary directories</echo>
                        </target>
                        <target name="myDAO" depends="compile">
                            <echo>Here's where I package up my DAO</echo>
                            <echo>But I have to compile stuff before I can package it</echo>
                        </target>
                    </configuration>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>run</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

What is the reason for this? How can I execute multiple ant tasks in maven?

Answer 1

We can do it by using a seperate build.xml file

<target name="anytarget">
     <ant antfile="build.xml"/>
</target>

Answer 2

The answer not work for me in the current version of Maven AntRun plugin (1.8) and I miss how would be the build.xml file.

So, in the pom.xml:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.8</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>download-files</id>
            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>run</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <target>
                    <ant antfile="build.xml">
                        <target name="go"/>
                    </ant>
                </target>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

And the build.xml file:

<project name="Selenium" basedir=".">

    <target name="check-files">
        <available file="src/test/resources/firefox/firefox" property="firefox.exists"/>
    </target>

    <target name="download-firefox" depends="check-files" unless="firefox.exists">
        <!-- download Firefox for selenium -->
        <get src="https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/57.0/linux-x86_64/pt-BR/firefox-57.0.tar.bz2"
             dest="src/test/resources"
             verbose="false"
             usetimestamp="true"/>
        <bunzip2 src="src/test/resources/firefox-57.0.tar.bz2"
                 dest="src/test/resources"/>
        <untar src="src/test/resources/firefox-57.0.tar"
               dest="src/test/resources"/>
        <chmod file="src/test/resources/firefox/firefox/" perm="700"/>
    </target>

    <target name="go" depends="check-files, download-firefox"/>

</project>

The above example execute the follow tasks:

1. Check if firefox exists on src/test/resources;
2. If not exists:
   1. Download firefox;
   2. bunzip2 firefox bzip2 file;
   3. untar the firefox tar file;
   4. Adjust the folder permission using chmod command.

Works perfect!