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Subject: Re: Embedding forrest in custom software
From: Thorsten Scherler <thorsten@apache.org>
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Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 22:13:16 +0100
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On Sat, 2005-03-12 at 20:26 +0200, Arik Kfir wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> We are thinking about embedding Forrest as a content generation engine 
> in our software.

Apache lenya is trying to do the same thing. :) 

I changed the response address to the dev list because we discuss such
things in the dev list. ;-)

>  Currently, the direction we want to take is simply 
> embedding the Ant runtime itself, and use it to activate Forrest.
> 
> In details we will:
> 1. Add the Ant JAR files into our classpath.

+1

> 2. Add the xml-forrest.jar to the classpath

+1

> 3. Add required JAR files from Forrest's "lib" directory to the 
> classpath (we're not sure which ones we really need - would appreciate 
> help on this).

That really depends which features of forrest you will going to use.

> 4. Create a template project structure (e.g. src/documentation, 
> forrest.properties, etc) in a temporary directory

Why temporary directory?


> 5. Activate Ant in code (manually create the Project, etc) to run 
> Forrest via its standard build.xml file.
> 

you wrote content generation engine, you will use then the normal
"forrest"-target you mean? 

By following this target you will find out which other libs are
involved.

> Before I start working on this, I was wondering if anyone had any 
> experience in doing this, or any tips/tricks on the subject.
> 

We are using in the 0.7 plugins to extract additional functionality from
the core. Have a look on that. That will give you an idea.

HTH

> 10x in advance!
>     Arik Kfir.
> 
> 

salu2
-- 
thorsten

"Together we stand, divided we fall!" 
Hey you (Pink Floyd)