Adding a new target to the Ant build process

As of DITA-OT 3.0, the ant.import extension point can be used to make new targets available to the Ant processing pipeline. This can be done as part of creating a new transformation, extending pre-processing, or simply to make new Ant targets available to other plug-ins.

  1. Create an Ant project file that contains the new target(s).

  2. Create the plugin.xml file:

    <plugin id="*plugin-id*">
  <feature extension="ant.import" file="*build-file*"/>
</plugin>

    where:

    • plugin-id is the plug-in identifier, for example, com.example.ant.
    • build-file is the Ant project file that contains the new build target(s).

  3. Use the dita install subcommand to install the plug-in.

    Note: For more information, see Installing plug-ins.

The targets from the project (build-file) are copied into the build.xml file, using the correct path. This makes the new Ant targets available to other processes.

Tip: Earlier versions of DITA-OT use the dita.conductor.target.relative to call a wrapper file with a dummy task that imports the Ant project file. This approach is still supported for backwards compatibility, but the simpler ant.import approach described above should be used for all new customizations.

Related information

General extension points

Installing plug-ins