XmlProperty

Description

Loads property values from a well-formed xml file. There are no other restrictions than "well-formed". You can choose the layout you want. For example this XML property file:

  <root>
    <properties>
      <foo>bar</foo>
    </properties>
  </root>

is roughly equivalent to this Java property file:

root.properties.foo = bar

By default, this load does no processing of the input. In particular, unlike the Property task, property references (i.e., ${foo}) are not resolved.

Semantic attributes

Input processing can be enabled by using the semanticAttributes attribute. If this attribute is set to true (its default is false), the following processing occurs as the input XML file is loaded:/p>

For example, with semantic attribute processing enabled, this XML property file:

<root>
  <properties>
    <foo location="bar"/>
    <quux>${root.properties.foo}</quux>
  </properties>
</root>

is roughly equivalent to the following fragments in a build.xml file:

<property name="root.properties.foo" location="bar"/>
<property name="root.properties.quux" value="${root.properties.foo}"/>

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
file The XML file to parse. Yes, or a nested resource collection
prefix The prefix to prepend to each property. No
keepRoot Keep the XML root tag as the first value in the property name. No; default is true
validate Validate the input file (e.g. by a DTD). Otherwise the XML must only be well-formed. No; default is false
collapseAttributes Treat attributes as nested elements. No; default is false
semanticAttributes Enable special handling of certain attribute names. See the Semantic Attributes section for more information. No; default is false
includeSemanticAttribute Include the semantic attribute name as part of the property name. Ignored if semanticAttributes is not set to true. See the Semantic Attributes section for more information. No; default is false
rootDirectory The directory to use for resolving file references. Ignored if semanticAttributes is not set to true. No; default is basedir
delimiter Delimiter for splitting multiple values.
since Apache Ant 1.7.1		 No; defaults to , (comma)

Parameters specified as nested elements

xmlcatalog

The <xmlcatalog> element is used to perform entity resolution.

any resource or single element resource collection

The specified resource will be used as input.

Examples

Non-semantic attributes

Here is an example XML file that does not have any semantic attributes.

<root-tag myattr="true">
  <inner-tag someattr="val">Text</inner-tag>
  <a2><a3><a4>false</a4></a3></a2>
</root-tag>
default loading

This entry in a build file:

<xmlproperty file="somefile.xml"/>

is equivalent to the following properties:

root-tag(myattr)=true
root-tag.inner-tag=Text
root-tag.inner-tag(someattr)=val
root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
collapseAttributes=false

This entry in a build file:

<xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" collapseAttributes="true"/>

is equivalent to the following properties:

root-tag.myattr=true
root-tag.inner-tag=Text
root-tag.inner-tag.someatt=val
root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
keepRoot=false

This entry in a build file:

<xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" keepRoot="false"/>

is equivalent to the following properties:

inner-tag=Text
inner-tag(someattr)=val
a2.a3.a4=false

Semantic attributes

Here is an example XML file that has semantic attributes.

<root-tag>
  <version value="0.0.1"/>
  <build folder="build">
    <classes id="build.classes" location="${build.folder}/classes"/>
    <reference refid="build.classes"/>
  </build>
  <compile>
    <classpath pathid="compile.classpath">
      <pathelement location="${build.classes}"/>
    </classpath>
  </compile>
  <run-time>
    <jars>*.jar</jars>
    <classpath pathid="run-time.classpath">
      <path refid="compile.classpath"/>
      <pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/>
    </classpath>
  </run-time>
</root-tag>
default loading (semanticAttributes=true)

This entry in a build file:

<xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" keepRoot="false"
             semanticAttributes="true"/>

is equivalent to the following entries in a build file:

<property name="version" value="0.0.1"/>
<property name="build.folder" value="build"/>
<property name="build.classes" location="${build.folder}/classes" id="build.classes"/>
<property name="build.reference" refid="build.classes"/>

<property name="run-time.jars" value="*.jar"/>

<path id="compile.classpath">
  <pathelement location="${build.classes}"/>
</path>

<path id="run-time.classpath">
  <path refid="compile.classpath"/>
  <pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/>
</path>
includeSemanticAttribute=true

This entry in a build file:

<xmlproperty file="somefile.xml"
             semanticAttributes="true" keepRoot="false"
             includeSemanticAttribute="true"/>

is equivalent to the following entries in a build file:

<property name="version.value" value="0.0.1"/>
<property name="build.folder" value="build"/>
<property name="build.classes.location" location="${build.folder}/classes"/>
<property name="build.reference.refid" refid="build.classes"/>

<property name="run-time.jars" value="*.jar"/>

<path id="compile.classpath">
  <pathelement location="${build.classes}"/>
</path>

<path id="run-time.classpath">
  <path refid="compile.classpath"/>
  <pathelement path="${run-time.jars}"/>
</path>