VPP FAQ

Q. What is VPP and why was it written?

A. VPP is a general file preprocessing tool based on the Velocity Template Engine. The core funtionality is provided as an Ant filter for use with tasks that support filter chains. Also included are replacement tasks for <copy> and <javac> that integrate support for preprocessing.

VPP was written because at the time of its original publication, there were no cross-platform preprocessing solutions with Ant support available.

Q. What version(s) of Ant are supported?

A. Ant 1.5.x and 1.6.x and starting with 1.6.x, you can choose to use VPP as an antlib.

Q. How is VPP different from Texen?

A. Texen is a relatively simple Ant task that uses a 'control template' to drive processing. It has very minimal integration with Ant and generally requires the user to subclass the Texen task to configure it.

VPP is designed to be completely configurable and driven from your build files, making it much simpler to use.

Q. Is there a mailing list for questions, comments and suggestions?

A. Yes, please subscribe here.