Ant: Problem: failed to create task or type propertyregex

Question

I'm using Ant 1.8.1. I have downloaded ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar and placed it in my $ANT_HOME/lib directory. However, when I include this in my build.xml file ...

<propertyregex property="selenium.email.success.subject"
          input="package.ABC.name"
          regexp="(.*)__ENV__(.*)"
          replace="\1${buildtarget}\2"
          override="true"
          casesensitive="false" />

I get the error "Problem: failed to create task or type propertyregex. Cause: The name is undefined." upon running my Ant build file. What else do I need to do to get this task recognized?

Answer 1

The propertyregex ant task is part of ant-contrib, and not included by default in any apache-ant installation.

You have to properly install ant-contrib. From the ant-contrib page, you have two choices:

1. Copy ant-contrib-0.3.jar to the lib directory of your Ant installation. If you want to use one of the tasks in your own project, add the line <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties"/> to your build file.

2. Keep ant-contrib-0.3.jar in a separate location. You now have to tell Ant explicitly where to find it (say in /usr/share/java/lib):

   <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="/usr/share/java/lib/ant-contrib-0.3.jar"/>
</classpath>
</taskdef>

Answer 2

I leave it here. I've experienced the similar error some time ago while I tried to compile my python project in IntelliJ IDEA. In my case it was required to specify custom Ant (check Use custom Ant radio button) instead of the default one. After I made those updates everything worked fine. Please find the screenshot below.

That worked for me, hope it'll be helpful.