To build, package, and run the simple application, we can simply execute the ant command in the examples/simple directory. It runs the build.xml script, which further invokes the examples/build-common.xml script. The compile and dist tasks in the build script builds the application.

   <target name="compile">

      <mkdir dir="build"/>

      <javac destdir="build"
         debug="on"
         deprecation="on"
         optimize="on"
         classpathref="compile.classpath">

         <src path="src"/>
      </javac>

   </target>

   <target name="dist" depends="compile">

      <copy todir="build">
         <fileset dir="src/resources"/>
      </copy>

      <mkdir dir="dist"/>

      <jar jarfile="dist/${ant.project.name}.beans" basedir="build"/>

   </target>


      

The compile target compiles the Java source files into class files under the build directory. Then, the dist target packages the class files and the META-INF/jboss-beans.xml file together in a JAR file named example-simple.jar in the dist directory.

In the next two sections, let's discuss how to run the newly created application both as a standalone Java SE application and as a service in the JBoss AS.

This just skims the surface of the Microcontainer, showing the most common usecases. Other more complicated examples can be found in the tests (available in the source code repository).