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FAQ
  • Does Virtual Ant only create build scripts? What about my existing build scripts? Can I open them in Virtual Ant too?
    Virtual Ant can both read and write Ant scripts. So you can open existing scripts, play them inside Virtual Ant, make changes and let the xml take care of itself. Part of the design goal of Virtual Ant is that you never ever have to deal with the xml. As an analogy think of word documents, you don't care about the xml that is generated when the document is saved, you just care about how the document actually looks. The same goes for Virtual Ant. That xml tab you see is there just for die hard xml fans or people who might be skeptical about using a GUI for everything. Once you start using Virtual Ant you will see yourself never needing to switch to it.
  • Can I make changes to the XML?
    Yes, any change you make in the xml will be reflected in the GUI too.
  • Will Virtual Ant integrate with any IDE?
    We will soon have integrations for all major Java IDEs - Eclipse, Intellij and Netbeans.
  • Will I have to pay separately for IDE plugins when they are available?
    No. There wont be any separate charge for IDE plugins of Virtual Ant.
  • Does Virtual Ant require running some background process to virtualize the file system?
    No. You do not need to run any background process. It just opens like any other program.
  • Do I have to wait for an insanely long time when I open Virtual Ant, while it virtualizes my file system?
    No. Virtual Ant loads up instantly. Your file system is virtualized on the fly as you use Virtual Ant.
  • Does Virtual Ant require a high end system with crazy amounts of memory?
    No. Virtual Ant will run on any modern system and has extremely modest memory requirements.
  • Has the video been edited in any way to make Virtual Ant seem faster?
    No. Virtual Ant really is that fast. If it wasn't so fast then creating those build scripts would be a huge pain, since you have to wait after each operation for it to complete.
  • Which version of Ant is Virtual Ant compatible with?
    Virtual Ant is compatible with Ant 1.6.5.
  • I do not see c:\ and d:\ in the "folders" view. I see only the "." (dot)

    In build scripts you generally use relative paths instead of absolute paths which start with a '.', eg - '.\builds' Its bad practice to use absolute paths, eg - ones that start with a drive letter, eg - 'C:\Project1\builds' .
    Thats why we dont add those drives as roots by default

    However you can added whatever drive/path you want as a root in the folders tab by clicking on the 'Add Root' button on the top of the Folders tab.

  • The toolbar buttons in the middle of the window and the buttons on top of the files are disabled.

    You need to 'Play' a target before all those buttons get enabled. Click on the targets tab and 'Play' an existing target or add a new target and play it.

  • When executing a script, my JAVA_HOME directory is not recognized.
    After clicking the 'Execute Script' button, click the 'Add Classpath' button in the dialog that pops up.
    Add the location of 'tools.jar' file of your jdk to the classpath. Eg - C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_06\lib\tools.jar

    Ater adding the classpath once, it will remain for the rest of that session until you close the Virtual Ant instance. This way you dont have to set it again each time you want to execute a script.
  • Virtual Ant sometimes feels sluggish while editing attributes of a task.

    If the task you are editing takes a long time to run or if they are any other long running tasks executing after the task being edited, Virtual Ant may seem a little sluggish as it tries to update the Virtual File System each time you edit any task.

    To cure this, rewind the task before editing. This way Virtual Ant wont try to update the VFS while you are editing the task attributes.