Ant Shell Extension is a Windows Explorer enhacement that adds a contextual menu when you right click over an Ant build.xml file, so you can execute all the actions defined in that file without going to a command console or starting Eclipse to make a simple clean. It's tested on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but we think it'll work in 2003 and Vista. If you come from the UNIX world it's like a make on steroids, with the equivalent of the traditional Makefile being a file named build.xml.

This software is licensed under the LGPL license, v2.1, wich roughly says that you can use, modify and redistribute this software as you want, but if you make changes to it you must publish your changes so other people can take benefit from them. But please, read the license if you're in doubt.

As usual, there's no warranty of any kind with this software. We use it whithout problems, but use it at your own risk

• Some JVM Runtime: Kaffe with GNU Classpath, Sun JRE, IBM JRE,...
• Apache ANT (tested with 1.6.x and 1.7) installed and working in your computer
• The system shell variable ANT_HOME pointing to your ANT installation folder, so ant can be run from the console
• Visual Basic 6 SP6 Runtimes.

You have the links to this software in the links section

This software was developed with Visual Basic 6SP6 (not .NET!) and no extra libraries are needed tho compile the package, so you can open the project with the VB6 IDE and play with it. Unzip the source ZIP in some folder and open the ictxmenu.vbp file.

Source code is available here.

You can download the installer clicking here.

When you right click on a XML file, the extension will look and parse the XML file looking for ant targets showing the main target in the context menu and a submenu with all the targets, allowing an easy way to launch them. If the target has any description it'll be showed in the status bar.

Depending of the type of te target and the file the menu will show a colored ant:

• Blue ant. This is one action from the main menu
• Green ant. One action from the submenu that has a description associated with it.
• Red ant. The file is not a valid Ant XML file
• No ant. The submenu target doesn't have a description

• Ant Homepage
• Kaffe free JVM, Sun JRE, IBM JRE.
• Visual Basic 6SP6 Runtimes. If the link doesn't work, search for KB290887 in the Microsoft site. This is not needed if you have Windows 2000 or better)
• NSIS, NullSoft Scriptable Install System, used to make the installer.
• NantMenu, the original idea which inspired this software.

If there's interest for adding features or making a patch we can think about opening a Subversion repository or publish this software in SourceForge or BerliOS. Any questions, requests or patches should go to this e-mail.