Tim Holloway wrote:For ant to be able to read and execute an encrypted build.xml you'd either need to store build.xml in an encypted filesystem or modify Ant so that it could decrypt build.xml.
Realistically, it's better just to hide the password someplace where it can't be seen by casual viewers and pass it in as an externally-supplied property. You could also make the Ant script prompt for a password, but as a rule, Ant scripts should avoid being interactive.
Ulf Dittmer wrote:You're right that there is no "need" to build a web app to access a DB; a desktop app would work just as well (assuming it can be installed wherever it's needed). Prior to 1994 or so, no web apps existed at all, and the world was able to access its DBs just fine :-)