Development Build Tasks

Introduction

This document discusses the ant tasks used during the build process of Openbravo ERP. It explains what the ant tasks are used for and which properties can be used to control their behavior. Notice that ant is case sensitive.

Main Build Tasks

File:Build-process2.png

This section explains the main build tasks following the steps as illustrated in the image.

In most of the cases it is only necessary to use 3 tasks (install.source, smartbuild and export.database). There are a number of other tasks that can be used but they are not required for the standard process, they are explained in the Detailed Build Tasks section.

The main task for the standard process is smartbuild which performs all the required processes as explained below. This task accepts an optional property:

1. local for local or remote developments which by default is set to yes.

The difference between local and remote development is illustrated in the diagram on the right. Local development are changes by the developer him/herself. Remote developments are changes done by other developers. Changes by remote developments are pulled from the source code revision system.

remote means that you're bringing changes to your workspace from an external location, e.g. with a hg pull

Initial installation

After downloading the Openbravo ERP source files (for example with an hg clone from mercurial). It is necessary to install and deploy it.

The first step is to properly configure all the required configuration files (Openbravo.properties, log4j.lcf, Eclipse's .classpath, etc). All properties are stored in the Openbravo.properties file. This file is not in the base source but it can be easily generated from the Openbravo.properties.template. Another way to set up it is to execute the setup tool for the current platform. (run ant setup).

Note: More about the properties and setup ant task can be found at Openbravo.properties.

After all the properties are configured the following step is to build the application from scratch and to deploy it. All this is done by the install.source task. This task creates the database, inserts sample data on it and compiles and deploys the application accordingly with the chosen deployment mode. To execute it just type in the Openbravo ERP source directory:

<source lang="bash">ant install.source</source>

Once Openbravo ERP is up and running it is possible to develop on it. Generally, new developments should be done through modules, further explanations about how to develop modules can be found in the Modularity article.

Build

Once the developments are ready to be tested it is necessary to build the application. It is not necessary to do a complete build, but just incremental builds, that is building only what has been modified. This is done with the smartbuild command:

<source lang="bash">ant smartbuild</source>

This task generates and compiles the sources for the modified elements, and, depending on the deploy mode, it also deploys them.

Available from 3.0PR17Q1

To build Openbravo to be deployed on Wildfly, application.server property needs to be set with value wildfly.

Database export

In most cases developments include modifications on the database. This modifications can be persisted in xml files using the DBSourceManager tool. DBSourceManager exports to xml files only the modules (including core) that are set as In Development. To export the database execute:

ant export.database

After this step the changed model xml files can be pushed/committed to the source code revision system, so that other developers can pick them up and continue working on top of it.

When a module is exported using the export.database task it is first validated to check for common errors. If the validation fails then the export.database task will also fail and export is not possible.

The following checks are currently done:

• A table defined in the Application Dictionary should be present in the database and vice versa.
• Column definitions in the database and the Application Dictionary are compared, any mismatch is reported. The column datatype, default value and length are checked.
• Tables should have a primary key.
• Foreign key fields should be part of a foreign key constraint.
• Names of tables, columns and constraints are checked for their length (Oracle has a 30 character limit there).

Update database

Database model changes are distributed by committing the database schema as xml to SCM. Other developers pull the changes from SCM and can apply them to update their own database. After updating the database the process is exactly the same as the local one, that is compile and deploy the elements that have been modified since last build. All the required actions (update database, compile last modifications and deploy them) can be done with only the smartbuild command:

ant smartbuild -Dlocal=no # note the -Dlocal=no

The only difference with the local development is in the local parameter which makes the process to update the database in case the xml files were changed.

Validate Module

When a module is packaged with the package.module ant task, then first it is checked for some common errors. If an error is detected then the package.module task will fail.

Specifically the following checks are done:

• A module should depend on the Core module, or depend on a module which depends on the Core module (recursively).
• The path in side the modules/.../src directory must correspond to the javapackage defined for the module.
• The javapackages of the DataPackages which are part of the module must be in line with the Java package defined for the module. So if the module has the javapackage org.example, then all Data Packages should have a Java package which starts with org.example.
• The license type and text must be set.
• If the module is an Industry Template then it must depend on core and the dependency must be set to 'Included'.
• If the module adds UI artifacts such as a window or tab then its 'translation required' field must be set to yes.

Module Consistency Check

An instance is consistent in case the dependencies all the modules it has installed are satisfied. Development instances can define inconsistencies (for example by creating a dependency on a module version which is not installed) whereas production instances where all the modules are installed through obx or Central Repository shouldn't be inconsistent because it is guaranteed by the installation process.

Inconsistent instances can be in a situation where it is not possible to update any of the modules (including core) they have installed. This is due the fact that Central Repository only proposes updates to consistent sets of versions and it is possible the inconsistency cannot be resolved by any.

This ant task helps to detect which are the modules that cause this inconsitency and which are the dependencies that are not satisfied, in this way it makes easier to solve the problem.

ant check.module.consistency

Test Ant Tasks

Openbravo has a number of ant tasks for running Junit test cases. The main one is run.tests:

ant run.tests

It will run the tests which are side effect free. The test ant tasks assume that the Small Bazaar and Accounting Test clients have been installed.

Detailed Build Tasks

This section contains a detailed listing of all available build tasks.

Libraries build tasks

Task	Description	Notes
core.lib	Compiles and generates a .jar file from the src-core project. Which is needed by wad.lib and the rest of build tasks.	Required by: wad.lib
wad.lib	Compiles and generates a .jar file from the src-wad project. Which is needed by the build tasks. This project contains the WAD, the automatic window generator.	Requires: core.lib, database created Required by: compile.*
trl.lib	Compiles and generates a .jar file from the src-trl project. Which is needed by the translate task. This project allows to translate to different languages manual windows.	Requires: core.lib

Build tasks

Task	Description	Notes	Sub Tasks
smartbuild	Makes an incremental build of the application. Including: update.database compile deploy All these tasks are done only if needed.	Requires: Database must be created and populated with data. Properties: local: (default to yes) when this property is set to no update.database task is executed, otherwise it is not executed. tr: (default to yes) if set to no, translation process is not executed. force: (default to no) used with local=no. If set to yes it will overwrite the changes in the database with the XML information. Note: All un-exported changes will be lost. wad.generateAllClassic250Windows: (default to false) when it is true, it forces WAD to generate code for all 2.50 style windows.
generate.entities	Generates the Java files for src-gen directory, and compiles them. They are used by DAL to access to the database information.	Requires: Database must be created and populated with data.
install.source	Installs the whole application: creates the database, compiles it and generates a war file to be deployed or copies the classes to Tomcat's directory (depending on the deploy.mode property set in Openbravo.properties).	Calls: create.database, core.lib, wad.lib, trl.lib, compile.complete.deploy, applyModule
compile	Generates Java classes for the WAD windows that are required, this is, the ones that contain processes with standard UI implemented within 2.50 windows or windows compatible only with 2.50 but not with 3.0; the rest of windows are not generated unless they are forced through wad.generateAllClassic250Windows property.Generates Java classes from modified xsql files, compiles all modified classes (including the generated ones), makes insertions in translation tables for non-existing entries for the manual UI files and copies everything to WebContent directory.	Requires: wad.lib, trl.lib, database created and populated. Calls: translate Properties: tab: specifies the window name(s) to be generated, to specify more than one window add them as a list of comma separated values. Note that even window is specified by this property, its 2.50 code will not be generated unless it is required or forced. tr: if set to "no" it will not call the translation process. module: a list of comma separated javapackages of modules to generate just the windows containing objects for those modules. wad.generateAllClassic250Windows: (default to false) when it is true, it forces WAD to generate code for all 2.50 style windows.	compile.src: it does the same as compile but without generating WAD windows. compile.development: it also copies the files to the tomcat's context. compile.complete: It does the same as compile but before removes all the generated and built files, so the whole application is built. Note do not use tab or module properties because the application will be partially rebuilt. compile.complete.development: The same as compile.complete but after the process copies all the generated classes to the tomcat's context. compile.deploy: The same as compile or compile.development, depending on how the deploy.mode property in the Openbravo.properties file is set. compile.complete.deploy: The same as a compile.complete or compile.complete.development, depending on how the deploy.mode property in the Openbravo.properties file is set.
translate	Checks in the manual windows User Interface files the translateable elements that have not been yet registered and registers them, this is necessary to be able to translate those interfaces to different languages.	Requires: trl.lib Called by: This task is called by the compile.* tasks in case the tr property is not set to "no"
war	Generates a war file from the existing built code. In fact it only zips the application in a single war file.	Requires: compile.*: the application must be built before calling this task.
deploy.context	Deploy the existing war file in the tomcat context using the tomcat manager.	Requires: war file must be created. Tomcat manager must be running These properties must be properly set in the Openbravo.properties file: tomcat.manager.url tomcat.manager.username tomcat.manager.password

Database tasks

Task	Description	Notes	Sub Tasks
update.database	Synchronizes database with the current database xml files. By default it checks that no changes in application dictionary in database are done, if so the process stops.	Properties: force: (default as false) Do not check for database modification and update directly. This can cause lose of database data.	update.database.script: It is the same as update.database.structure but does not modify the database. It only generates a sql script file with the statements that would be executed by the other tasks.
create.database	Creates the database from the xml files, note that the database is first removed. If the apply.on.create property is set, masterdata and sampledata will be inserted in the database. If not, only sourcedata will be inserted.	Properties: apply.on.create: If is set to "true" and there are modules they will be applied, otherwise they will be set as "In process" status.	create.database.script: The same as create.database.structure but does not affect the database it only generates the sql script file with all the statements that would be executed by the other tasks.
export.database	Synchronizes xml files with the database current contents. By default they are only exported in case there are modifications in the database. In addition performs database validations for the modules which are exported.	Properties: force: (default to false) Forces the export skipping the check of which files had been modified since last update.database validate.model: (default to true) Checks the model that is being exported fulfills a series of rules related to modularity, oracle-postgreSQL compatibility, etc. In case any of these rules is not complied, export will not be done and an error message will be raisen.

This feature is available starting from 3.0PR17Q2.

update.database and export.database tasks support multi-thread parallel execution for some of their actions such as index creation or function standardization. By default, the number of threads used is calculated as the half of the available number of cores in the machine where the task is executed. This value can be set by adding the -Dmax.threads=numOfThreads parameter

Modules

Task	Description	Notes
package.module	Validates the module and if no errors are found generates the obx file for the module.	Properties module: Java package for the module to extract. obx.export.RD: If set to true the reference data is exported for the modules (if it has), by default is false. obx.export.DB: If set to true the database is exported for the modules, by default is false. obx.export.CS: If set to true the configuration script is exported (in case there is an active template), by default is false. obx.export.validate: (from 3.0MP20) Validates module before exporting, by default is true. obx.export.allDeps: (from 3.0MP20) Includes in the obx all dependencies (recursively) of the module being exported (not only inclusions), in this way it is possible to create an umbrella module on top of all installed modules in the instance, that when it is exported, contains all the sources in the instance, being in this way much simpler to promote this code from testing to production environments. By default it is false.
export.config.script	Generates the configuration script for the current active template (if any). More information about Industry Templates and configuration scripts can be found here	Note: export.database must be executed before running this process
check.module.consistency	Checks the locally installed modules satisfy all their dependencies, this is, the instance is consistent. In case there are modules that define dependencies that are not installed a message is shown indicating which is the module and which dependency is not satisfied.

Test Tasks

Task	Description
run.tests	The default, it runs the suite: org.openbravo.test.AntTaskTests. These tests are side effect free and can be run multiple times, after the run the database should be in the same state as before.
run.quick.tests	This task runs test cases which are fast and which test the most important parts of the system. It runs the test suite: org.openbravo.test.AllQuickAntTaskTests.
run.all.tests	Runs the suite org.openbravo.test.AllAntTaskTests. This suite contains all the test cases, also tests which can change the database.

Other Tasks

Task	Description
migrate.attachments	Migrates the attachments to the new attachment model. For more information on the new attachment model refer here.
host.name	Prints local host name, to be used to create an instance Openbravo.properties to override common properties.