Multi module Ant build system and Eclipse

Question

Se lets say you are starting with a multi-module project. A library and two modules which will depend on that library.

I am planning on using ANT plus Ivy for dependency management. So I am looking for a way to integrate Eclipse + ant + ivy.

So the standard way of working with these tools would be to create a different project in eclipse for each module? or create a Single project and multiple src folders for each module?.

Although my question might seem like a very subjective one, I am looking for a standard way to handle multi-module projects under Eclipse when using an external tool for building and dependency management. And by a standard I mean, in a way that eclipse will find the dependencies for my project, auto complete works and src and javadoc will be available when needed inside the IDE, also that when debuging within Eclipse, the source will be attached to navigate through the breakpoints.

Please don't tell me to use Maven, I have used it already and hate it with passion.

Answer 1

You have IvyDE which works well with dependency management (can be Jar from repository or Ivy module in the workspace).

Each Eclipse project is an Ivy module whose dependency may be resolved from workspace (build path entry from eclipse project) or an Ivy resolver (build path entry from the Ivy cache).

For the developer workflow, I think you doesn't need Ant since Eclipse will build the projects for you, and for the CI build, the Ant script will use the same Ivy modules definition. The only difference is that at each module build, a publication will be done and you'll need something else (Jenkins?) to make dependency build trigger (which in turn will resolve their dependencies from Ivy and publish their artifacts). There is also Ivy trigger after a publish task to trigger other project? The Ivy buildlist task may work as well but never used myself.