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how necessary is it to know build tools

 
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Hi All,

I have come across some build tools like Ant and Maven but haven't worked them (Used maven for managing dependencies but not building).

I always used the Build option available in my eclipse id.

how necessary is it to have a knowledge of these build tools? and what specifically are they suppossed to do other that build a war file?

The questions may seem dumb to the experts here but just wanted to know what important part am i missing in j2ee. Pointers to basic reference material might also help.

Thanks
 
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Ant or Maven could get the latest code from your source code repository, prepared and compile that code, run the unit tests and generate a report with the results, generate documentation, package the code into a J2EE application, deploy that application to an application server and then verify it.
 
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The benefit of having an Ant/Maven build file is that it can be run automatically by build tools such as Cruise Control, or remotely from the command line. It won't always be you who builds the code, nor necessarily even a human being who does it. Or maybe another developer on the team needs to build it who doesn't use Eclipse.
 
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I would say it's an essential part of your 'knowledge toolbox'
 
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Eclipse provides basic build facilities, but what differentiates the "pro"grammers from the "amateur"grammers is the greater extent of the professional's skills and toolset, just like the difference between a Boy Scout with a First Aid merit badge and a neurosurgeon. I realize that the popular conception is that any 10-year old kid is supposed to be able to build an "amazon.com" app over a 3-day holiday weekend, but it just ain't so.

One you need more complicated build operations, you need more complex tools. back in the stone ages, I used batch files and the Unix "make" utility, but Ant and Maven are much better suited. And while Eclipse isn't capable of doing builds of this complexity itself - at least without heavy customization - Eclipse does have good support for Ant and Maven. Ant's is built-in, while there's a plugin for Maven.

Another compelling reason for knowing how to use build tools is that IDE's are far too fragile. I've run into major grief many times because you could only build a project when using a specific version of a specific IDE and it had to have been specifically configured to mirror the local computer system of the person who last worked on the project. Batch tools are less subject to that effect. In fact, Maven's compensation for forcing you to adapt their project structure is that you can download and build almost any maven project with practically zero configuration or knowledge of the particular project being built.
 
Collin Dugas
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Thanks All of you for sharing your knowledge.

I would now change from a "amateur"grammer to a "pro"grammer
 
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