JSLint with ANT

jslint4java:

"This is a java wrapper around the fabulous tool by Douglas Crockford, jslint. It provides a simple interface for detecting potential problems in JavaScript code."

With this tool, batch scan JavaScript files with JSLint is a piece of cake. Here is a sample ANT target:

<target name="jslint.src.js" depends="init">
<description>scan javascript files using jslint</description>
<apply executable="java" parallel="false" failonerror="false">
  <arg value="-jar" />
  <arg file="${tools.dir}/${jslint}" />
  <arg value="--bitwise" />
  <arg value="--browser" />
  <arg value="--undef" />
  <arg value="--widget" />
  <srcfile />
  <sort xmlns:rcmp="antlib:org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources.comparators">
    <rcmp:name />
    <fileset dir="${web.js.dir}">
      <include name="**/*.js" />
      <exclude name="**/YUI/**" />
      <exclude name="**/*-min.js" />
      <exclude name="**/*-debug.js" />
    </fileset>
  </sort>
</apply>
</target>

For ease of future reference, JSLint output can be redirected to a text file:
ANT jslint.src.js > jslintreport.txt

YUI Compressor in ANT

Here is a sample ANT target to batch minify all JavaScript files using YUI Compressor:

<target name="js.minify" depends="init">
<description>minify js files</description>
<apply executable="java" parallel="false" failonerror="true">
<arg value="-jar" />
<arg file="${tools.dir}/${yuicompressor}" />
<arg value="--nomunge" />
<!-- line break set at 20 characters, so that we can get many line breaks, this
   is good for debugging in IE-->
<arg value="--line-break" />
<arg value="20" />
<arg value="--preserve-strings" />
<arg value="--preserve-semi" />
<arg value="--charset" />
<arg value="ISO-8859-1" />
<arg value="-o" />
<targetfile />
<srcfile />
<!-- files are processed in alpha-order so that we can know the progress,
   and easily identify the file that is failed.-->
<sort xmlns:rcmp="antlib:org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources.comparators">
 <rcmp:name />
 <fileset dir="${src.dir}">
  <include name="**/*.js" />
  <exclude name="**/YUI/**" />
  <!-- avoid cycling -->
  <exclude name="**/*-min.js" />
 </fileset>
</sort>
<!-- define output file name -->
<mapper type="glob" from="*.js" to="*-min.js" />
</apply>
</target>

About YUI Compressor: it is a tool to minimize JavaScript and CSS files. I have used it for more 6 months on a public web site without any problem.

About ANT: I have been using APACHE ANT for 7 years, since 2001. To me, an ANT build file structure is more intuitive and scalable than MAKE files.

Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, but without Make's wrinkles.

This is the post that gets me started on this direction:
Building Web Applications With Apache Ant