Ant Developer’s Handbook

<splash>

As you’ve probably realized by now, the majority of the Ant framework evolves around the command line. Apart from the odd feedback line that comes back, there is no real progress indicator. Enter in the <splash> task. This is a special task that when invoked will remain active until the build process is complete, showing a progress bar. To use this task, simply insert the <splash> element before a call to a lengthy target, as demonstrated in Listing 5.22.

Listing 5.22. Inserting a Splash and Progress Bar

<target name="splash-example"> <splash showduration="100"/> </target>

This will display a small pop-up window of the Ant logo, with a progress bar running underneath it. The majority of developers probably won’t use this task, but ...