All things Jythonic 2004/4

Use Jython to Write Ant Tasks

This is an article I wrote that looks at how to add scripted behaviour to ant builds. It details the steps to write a custom Ant task in Jython, compile it and install it into Ant so it can be used as any other task in an ant build. The article also takes a quick look at an alternate implementation using Groovy.

Fun with Jython [Through the blogging-glass/Java]

Using Jython to combine the simplicity of the Pythonesque approach with the power of ubiquitous Java classes. Guest stars: the Money example, Textile4J, tuProlog and XML-RPC. (984 words)

Simplify Web development with Jython, Spring and Velocity [BuggyBean]

Anthony Eden has recently been blogging about simplifying web application development. He is suggesting using a scripting language for your controller in "The Way You Develop Web Applications May Be Wrong". I think he has some good points and it just happens that I have been experimenting with some similar ideas.

I was trying to use Jython as the scripting language for the controller, but I was not happy about giving up on using Spring for configuring my web application. So I figured out how to load a WebApplicationContext using a Jython servlet. Then I added Velocity to handle the view part. This combination makes for pretty easy coding for the controller and this would be extremely helpful for applications that are not terribly complex. The nice thing with using Spring for the data access layer is that there is no need to manage any database connections in your scripts. Makes the code much more compact and readable.