Building and Running ICEfaces with Ant

Building ICEfaces

If you have downloaded the Source distribution bundle of ICEfaces, you will need to compile and build the ICEfaces libraries before using them.

The ICEfaces Binary distribution bundle comes with prebuilt ICEfaces libraries so building is not necessary.

ant allclean world

This builds all of the ICEfaces libraries and sample applications suitable for deployment to any JEE 6 Servlet Profile platform, such as Tomcat 6/7 and Jetty 7. If you'd like to build specific pieces of the distribution, type:

ant -p

to get a list of the available targets (e.g. ant core). It's recommended that you build everything the first time to ensure all the required libraries are created.

Building the Sample Applications

The ICEfaces distribution comes with example applications that illustrate the key features of ICEfaces as well as providing source code and guidance about configuration and library dependencies.

The default build target, "ant ", is mapped to the "servlet-profile" build target, which builds a version of the sample application suitable for deployment to any Servlet Profile platform, such as Tomcat 6/7 and Jetty 7, and includes both the icefaces.jar and the icepush.jar for Ajax Push support.

The default build behavior can be modified using either the convenience targets in the build file or the properties as follows:

ant servlet-profile

This includes jsf-*.jar files, icefaces.jar and icepush.jar.

ant web-profile

This includes icefaces.jar and icepush.jar.

Properties can also be used with the ant command to exclude the related .jar files from the .war file:

By default, the Mojarra JSF library is included when the "servlet-profile" is specified. To include the Apache MyFaces JSF libraries instead, include the "-Dmyfaces=''" property:

ant -Dmyfaces='' servlet-profile

In addition, The "no-icefaces" property excludes all ICEfaces and ICEpush related .jar files where the "no-icepush" property only excludes the ICEpush related .jar file.

ant -Dno-icefaces='' -Dno-icepush=''

ICEfaces Showcase

The sample applications under the [icefaces.install.dir]/icefaces/sample/showcase directory demonstrate key ICEfaces features, including extensive demos for both the ACE Components and the ICE Components.

To build the showcase example, open a console or shell and navigate to the directory (e.g. [icefaces.install.dir]\/icefaces/samples/showcase/showcase), and type:

ant -p

And press Enter. This displays a list of build targets for various platforms.

Standard JSF with Core ICEfaces Framework and ICEpush

The sample applications under [icefaces.install.dir]\/icefaces/samples/core use only standard JSF components enhanced with the core ICEfaces framework. As such, they require fewer library dependencies.

The main example is Auction - an online auction simulator implemented using JSF standard components, the ICEfaces core framework, and Ajax Push. This sample demonstrates how ICEfaces can provide automated-ajax and push update capabilities to standard JSF applications with minimal changes.

To run any of the core samples, open a console or shell and navigate to the directory (e.g. [icefaces.install.dir]\/icefaces/samples/core/auction), type:

ant -p

And press Enter. This displays a list of build targets for various platforms.

Auction Monitor featuring the ICEfaces Components

The example under the [icefaces.install.dir]/icefaces/compat/samples/auctionMonitor directory provides a simulated online auction application using the core ICEfaces library, the ICEpush library, and features the ICEfaces Components.

The AuctionMonitor example builds the same way as the ICEfaces Showcase example above.

Portlet Samples

You can find more information on Portlets and the examples under Portlet Development. For specific instructions on how to use Ant to build the portlet examples and include the appropriate portlet bridge, see the section titled Sample Portlet Applications.