The most widely used build tool for Java projects, Ant is cross-platform, extensible, simple, fast and easy to use. It scales from small personal projects to large, multi-team J2EE ones. Java Development with Ant systematically explores what Ant can do, and how to apply it to a range of projects. The book shows both beginner and experienced users powerful and creative uses for Ant, emphasizing basic concepts, starting with Ant's XML-driven build process. It leads readers step-by-step through everything they need to know to compile, test, package and deploy an application. It then guides them through the maze of more complex situations common in larger projects such as enterprise Java applications and Web Services. This book allows users to gain access to a powerful tool to automatically build, test, and deploy Java software, no matter how simple or complex it might be.