Ant for Nova

Ant for Nova is a Panic Nova extension that integrates Apache Ant directly into the sidebar, allowing you to easily view and run build targets from within your workspace. It also includes (work-in-progress) XML code completions to assist with editing your Ant's build.xml files.

This extensions bundles Apache Ant 1.10.15 (released on August 29, 2024).

📋 Requirements

Apache Ant requires some additional tools to be installed on your Mac:

• Java (8 or newer)

Make sure that JAVA_HOME has been set, and points to a JDK in you system. Otherwise, you may get errors if the build is using javac.

🚀 Usage

To display the Ant sidebar:

• Click on the "All Sidebars" button.
• Select Ant or drag to a sidebar area

Running Targets

• In the Ant sidebar, you can right-click and select "Run" on a target.

• You can also click on the > button in the sidebar to run the selected target

Show in Build XML

• On targets and on other elements in the sidebar, you can also select "Show in Build XML" to jump to that point in the XML

• You can also click on the three-lined button in the side bar to jump to that element in the XML

⚙️ Configuration

Global Settings

To configure global preferences, open Extensions → Extension Library... then select Ant's Preferences tab.

• Ant Path: Here you can optionally specify a custom path for an Ant installation on you system. If left blank, it will use the bundled Apache Ant 1.10.15 will be used.

Project Settings

You can also configure preferences on a per-project basis in Project → Project Settings...

• Ant Path: If you only want to use a custom path for an Ant installation on you system for this project.

• Ant Build File: Specify a custom Ant build file. The default it to look for a build.xml in the root of your Nova project.

📄 License

This extension bundles Apache Ant, which is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. The full text of the Apache License 2.0 is available in the apache-ant-1.10.15/LICENSE file.

'Apache', 'Apache Software Foundation', the multicolored feather, and the various Apache project names and logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation in the United States and other countries.

📢 Notices

Notices for the Apache Ant project can be found in the apache-ant-1.10.15/NOTICE file.

Changelog

The format is based on Keep a Changelog 1.1 and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning 2.0.

[0.9.1] - 2025-07-01

Changed

• Updated Ant to 1.10.15.

[0.9.0] - 2025-07-01

Added

• NS3X2J now stores the index of the start of elements. Useful for selecting in Nova!

Fixed

• When editor's view is wrapped, "Show in XML" did not go to the correct position.

[0.8.0] - 2025-02-25

Added

• Started adding completions for Ant tags and attributes
• Screenshot to README.md

Fixed

• NS3X2J was skipping whitespace inside a tag's content

Changed

• Only shows warning about missing build file when opening a project if it's not the default

[0.7.0] - 2024-09-27

Added

• Notices about Apache Ant

[0.6.0] - 2024-07-04

Added

• Created new icons

Changed

• NS3X2J optionally stores position of node
• Clean up and change other scripts around

[0.5.0] - 2024-07-01

Added

• Configuration options

[0.4.0] - 2024-06-23

Changed

• NS3X2J to handle parsing unmodified XML string.
• NS3X2J stores position of elements.

Fixed

• Context menus to only enable relevant options.

[0.3.0] - 2024-06-22

Changed

• Show nested commands in tree.

[0.2.0] - 2024-06-19

Changed

• Replaced XML parsing with custom XML parser

[0.1.0] - 2024-03-17

Added

• Started running targets!
• Initial commit