$message:

   The $message: function shortcut lets you display an entry from an installed AntXtras messages resource bundle (<messagesbundle>) without first copying the parsed string into a property or variable. The $message: funcut also lets you substitute runtime values into message parameters used in the source string (as defined by the standard Java MessageFormat syntax); the resulting string is the funcut’s output value. You would use $message: to supply values from resource bundles to macro attributes, displayed messages, or any standard Ant component that uses strings. The $message: funcut is a query only feature– you cannot use it to modify existing data.

The $message: funcut (and its alias $string:) is automatically installed and enabled by the standard AntXtras funcuts antlib. You can also explicitly install this funcut’s handler; read the Examples section to see how you can do this.

The general form of the function shortcut is: $message:resource-id[?arg0[,,arg1…,,arg9]] where resource-id is the name or key of the resource message being read, and arg0 through arg9 are replacement values for the indexth parameter in the source message; for example the value at parameter arg0 would be used to replace the “{0}” parameter.

For template messages AntXtras will automatically provide the enclosing task’s name and script location for use at positions {0} and {1} if and only if you have not provided your own values. It’s up to you whether or not you need to use these provided values in your strings.

The following snippet explicitly declares the message function shortcuts and links it to the ‘$message:’ and ‘$string:’ scheme. If you choose to activate shortcuts manually, you’ll need to do something like this at the start of your Ant script’s execution.

1: <oja:managefuncuts action="enable">
2:   <parameter name="message"
3:     value="${oja}.messages.MessageFunctionShortcut"/>
4:   <parameter name="string"
5:     value="${oja}.messages.MessageFunctionShortcut"/>
6: </oja:managefuncuts>

The following snippet uses the $message: funcut to display a startup message ‘greeting.msg’ from a previously installed global messages bundle.

1: [@ startup...]
2: <oja:managemessages resource="META-INF.my-messages"/>
3: …
4: [elsewhere...]
5: <echo message="${$message:greeting.msg}"/>
6: …

The following snippet does the same as the preceding example, except this time the ‘greeting.msg’ string is a template that requires two arguments. The script supplies two property values stored in ${starttime} and ${projectname}.

1: [@ startup...]
2: <oja:managemessages resource="META-INF.my-messages"/>
3: …
4: [elsewhere...]
5: <echo message="${$message:greeting.msg?${starttime},,${projectname}}"/>
6: …

The following snippet declares a macro that uses the $string: funcut to define some default attribute values.

1: <macrodef name="update-dashboard">
2:   <attribute name="source" default="${$string:project.label}"/>
3:   <attribute name="status" default="${$string:default.result|$literal:FAIL}"/>
4: …

• $message:
• $string:

• The latest MessageFunctionShortcut javadocs with more examples.
• The $shorten: funcut lets you restrict a string’s length to a specified maximum.
• The transformation funcuts let you apply formatting transformations to strings and other simple data types like numbers or paths.