Hi Ronald, if you look at the manual for XmlProperty you will find the following statement: "By default, this load does *no* processing of the input. In particular, unlike the Property task <http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/property.html>, property references (i.e., ${foo}) are not resolved."
Unfortunately, the manual adds confusion here as the examples it provides do not reflect this statement. Also have a look at the echoproperties task, it helps a whole heap with debugging properties. http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/xmlproperty.html http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/echoproperties.html On 7 June 2012 01:23, Ronald Albury <ronalb...@gmail.com> wrote: > My understanding is that the xmlproperty task is supposed to expand > references to external properties just like the regular property task > does. However, it does not seem to work for me. The output below is from > ant 1.7 - however I have downloaded the latest ant and it has the same > issue. > > *Here is my ant file:* > <project name="test" default="show"> > > <property name="global.demo" value="i am global demo"/> > > <xmlproperty keepRoot="true" file="props.xml"/> > <property file="props.properties"/> > > <target name="show"> > <echo>ant.version = ${ant.version}</echo> > <echo>ant.java.version = ${ant.java.version}</echo> > <echo>java.vendor = ${java.vendor}</echo> > <echo>java.version = ${java.version}</echo> > > <echo message="cmd.demo property = ${cmd.demo}"/> > <echo message="global.demo property = ${global.demo}"/> > <echo message="props.demo property = ${props.demo}"/> > <echo message="xml.demo property = ${xmlTest.demo}"/> > > <echo message="props.cmd property = ${props.cmd}"/> > <echo message="props.global property = ${props.global}"/> > > <echo message="xml.cmd property = ${xmlTest.cmd}"/> > <echo message="xml.global property = ${xmlTest.global}"/> > </target> > > </project> > > *Here is the regular property file:* > props.demo = This is properties demo > props.cmd = This is properties with cmd ${cmd.demo} > props.global = This is properties with global ${global.demo} > > *Here is the xml property file:* > <xmlTest> > <demo>This is xmlTest demo</demo> > <cmd>This is xmlTest with cmd ${cmd.demo}</cmd> > <global>This is xmlTest with global ${global.demo}</global> > </xmlTest> > > *Here is the output when I run with -Dcmd.demo="i am command demo" * > show: > [echo] ant.version = Apache Ant version 1.7.1 compiled on June 27 2008 > [echo] ant.java.version = 1.6 > [echo] java.vendor = IBM Corporation > [echo] java.version = 1.6.0 > [echo] cmd.demo property = i am command demo > [echo] global.demo property = i am global demo > [echo] props.demo property = This is properties demo > [echo] xml.demo property = This is xmlTest demo > [echo] props.cmd property = This is properties with cmd i am command > demo > [echo] props.global property = This is properties with global i am > global demo > [echo] xml.cmd property = This is xmlTest with cmd ${cmd.demo} > [echo] xml.global property = This is xmlTest with global ${global.demo} >
