Lightweight XML DevOps using Apache Ant

Philip Hodder

Abstract

Many teams struggle with defining, documenting and following proper processes. A case study is described where the content delivery team of a major digital publisher was experiencing these problems when running transformation pipelines using XSLT and Schematron, as well as numerous other XML related tasks. The use of the Apache Ant build tool has allowed them to create a set of higher level tools that to enforce an agreed development policy using a set of reusable macros. These macros have allowed the team to dramatically increase the quality of deployed code, as well as improving the ability of new team members to become productive more quickly. This experience has spurred the development of an open source equivalent of this macro library (whimsically entitled "XPantS") which is also described.


Table of Contents

Introduction
Development Policy
Documentation
The ANT macro library
Example of use
XPantS
Macro construction
XPantS contents
Build file example
Conclusion
Bibliography