Conditional compilation in Flex using nAnt
Here’s a trick which you may already know about (after all, it’s in the docs) but I only discovered it today when I needed it.
Conditional compilation allows you to vary the classes and functions included in a compilation based on a config value.
Eg., You may have a slightly different codebase used for your debug build than for your release build.
For example, on my current project we have a couple of convenient hacks in use in our test environment to prevent us from needing to log in every time we launch a debug session.
However, somewhat predictably, one of these hacks recently made it through to our testing team, and broke all sorts of stuff.
So, I figured I’d find a way to automatically remove it as part of our build process.
The class got modified to look a little something like this:
public class PrepCommand extends SimpleCommand
{
public override function execute(notification:INotification):void
{
doDebugLogon();
}
CONFIG::debugging
private function doDebugLogon():void
{
trace("This is where the logon should happen");
}
CONFIG::release
private function doDebugLogon():void {}
}
Note that the doDebugLogon() method is defined twice within the method, varied by the CONFIG attribute.
This attribute defines under which compilation configuration to include the method. You can do the same thing for a full class.
Next, I modified the compiler-config.xml file used for our project to include this snippet:
<flex-config>
<compiler>
<define>
<name>CONFIG::debugging</name>
<value>true</value>
</define>
<define>
<name>CONFIG::release</name>
<value>false</value>
</define>
</compiler>
</flex-config>
Then, simply swapping the values of debugging & release would modifiy which of the function calls are included in the compiled source.
Not bad, but still not very automatic.
Because we’re a .NET shop here, our build tool of choice is nAnt. Most of our config files for the flex build are generated from template files, using nAnt variables to give us nice flexible builds. (pardon the pun).
So, I introduced a new target into our build file for performing a release compile:
<target name="release" description="Performs a release, setting appropriate config values.">
<property name="debug" value="false" />
<call target="build" />
</target>
…and added a couple of new variables to the properties file:
<property name="useDebugConfig" value="true" />
<!-- Derived from useDebugConfig. Set the value of useDebugConfig rather than setting useReleaseConfig.
Note that only one of these values must be true, or compilation will fail -->
<property name="useReleaseConfig" value="${string::to-lower(not(useDebugConfig))}" />
Then, I tweaked the compiler-config described above to look like this:
<flex-config>
<compiler>
<define>
<name>CONFIG::debugging</name>
<value>${useDebugConfig}</value>
</define>
<define>
<name>CONFIG::release</name>
<value>${useReleaseConfig}</value>
</define>
</compiler>
</flex-config>
Now, ensuring the correct code is included is as simple as:
nant // Calls 'build', our default target using the debugging compilation options
nant release // Uses release compilation options
That’s it.
It’s worth reading up on conditional compilation in the docs, as there’s a bunch of great examples in there.
Questions / comments welcome.
Marty
