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<h2>Introduction</h2>

<p><a href="http://ant.apache.org">Ant</a> is the predominant build environment for Java projects. Groovy is a leading Scripting language for the JVM. The good news is that you can use them together easily and with many benefits.</p>

<p><img class="emoticon emoticon-green-star" data-emoticon-name="green-star" border="0" src="/s/en_GB/3278/15/_/images/icons/emoticons/star_green.png" alt="(green star)" title="(green star)" /> <strong>Existing Ant Users (Java Projects)</strong>: If you are already familiar with using Ant with a traditional <code>build.xml</code> file, then you can continue to do so with almost no changes. If you want you can begin to use the <a class="confluence-link" href="/display/GROOVY/The+groovy+Ant+Task" data-linked-resource-id="23456" data-linked-resource-type="page" data-linked-resource-default-alias="The groovy Ant Task" data-base-url="http://docs.codehaus.org"><code>&lt;groovy&gt;</code></a> Ant task to bring the full power of a scripting language to your build scripts.</p>

<p><img class="emoticon emoticon-green-star" data-emoticon-name="green-star" border="0" src="/s/en_GB/3278/15/_/images/icons/emoticons/star_green.png" alt="(green star)" title="(green star)" /> <strong>Existing Ant Users (Groovy or mixed Groovy/Java Projects)</strong>: If you wish to pre-compile your Groovy scripts as part of your build process (it can help catch syntactic errors earlier if you do) then you need to know about the <a class="confluence-link" href="/display/GROOVY/The+groovyc+Ant+Task" data-linked-resource-id="32704" data-linked-resource-type="page" data-linked-resource-default-alias="The groovyc Ant Task" data-base-url="http://docs.codehaus.org"><code>&lt;groovyc&gt;</code></a> Ant task. You will find it almost identical to the <code>javac</code> task which you are probably already familiar with.</p>

<p><img class="emoticon emoticon-green-star" data-emoticon-name="green-star" border="0" src="/s/en_GB/3278/15/_/images/icons/emoticons/star_green.png" alt="(green star)" title="(green star)" /> <strong>Existing Groovy Users</strong>: You probably want to consider how you can <a class="confluence-link" href="/display/GROOVY/Using+Ant+from+Groovy" data-linked-resource-id="2713" data-linked-resource-type="page" data-linked-resource-default-alias="Using Ant from Groovy" data-base-url="http://docs.codehaus.org">use AntBuilder</a> to leverage the many available Ant tasks directly in your code using a DSL-style notation. You can <a class="confluence-link" href="/display/GROOVY/Using+Ant+Libraries+with+AntBuilder" data-linked-resource-id="81165" data-linked-resource-type="page" data-linked-resource-default-alias="Using Ant Libraries with AntBuilder" data-base-url="http://docs.codehaus.org">leverage Ant Libraries</a> in the same way.</p>

<h2>Further Information</h2>

<ul>
	<li><a class="confluence-link" href="/display/GROOVY/Ant+Task+Troubleshooting" data-linked-resource-id="32713" data-linked-resource-type="page" data-linked-resource-default-alias="Ant Task Troubleshooting" data-base-url="http://docs.codehaus.org">Ant Task Troubleshooting</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://ant.apache.org/manual">Ant Manual</a></li>
</ul>

<p>A few articles related to this topic:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2004/jw-1004-groovy_p.html">Build scripts with Groovy and Ant</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-pg12144.html">Practically Groovy: Ant scripting with Groovy</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.ftponline.com/javapro/2004_05/online/kjones_05_19_04/">Scripting a Groovy Ant</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2007/03/23/using-groovy-to-send-emails.html?page=last">Using Groovy to Send Emails: AntBuilder</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://webtest.canoo.com/webtest/manual/groovyTesting.html">Using WebTest with AntBuilder</a></li>
</ul>