Setting Up Java 8 CI with Ant, Jenkins, SonarQube, and JaCoCo

Technical environment: CI is essential for security‑driven projects; the proof‑of‑concept demonstrates that Java 8, NetBeans 8.0, Ant, JUnit 4, JaCoCo 0.7.1, Jenkins and Sonar 4.2 can work together.

Java 8 & NetBeans & Ant: the tutorial builds a modular multi‑layer application using Ant (Maven can also be used) and describes the module suite structure.

JUnit 4 & JaCoCo: unit tests are written with JUnit 4 and code coverage is collected with JaCoCo, which fully supports Java 8.

Jenkins & Sonar: Jenkins serves as the CI engine, integrating the above tools; SonarQube performs quality analysis and is compatible with Java 8. The Sonar Ant task is added via a small library or Maven plugin.

Project configuration steps: install Java 8, create a module suite with classes and JUnit tests, commit to version control, set up JaCoCo and Sonar Ant task folders, and add the following Ant build file (sonar‑jacoco‑module.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- ... -->
<project name="sonar-jacoco-module" basedir="." xmlns:jacoco="antlib:org.jacoco.ant" xmlns:sonar="antlib:org.sonar.ant">
    <description>Builds the module suite otherSuite.</description>
    <property name="jacoco.dir" location="${nbplatform.default.harness.dir}/jacoco-0.7.1"/>
    <property name="result.exec.file" location="${jacoco.dir}/jacoco.exec"/>
    <property name="build.test.results.dir" location="build/test/unit/results"/>
    <property file="nbproject/project.properties"/>
    <!-- Step 1: Import JaCoCo Ant tasks -->
    <taskdef uri="antlib:org.jacoco.ant" resource="org/jacoco/ant/antlib.xml">
        <classpath path="${jacoco.dir}/jacocoant.jar"/>
    </taskdef>
    <target name="-do-junit" depends="test-init">
        <echo message="Doing testing for jacoco"/>
        <macrodef name="junit-impl">
            <attribute name="test.type"/>
            <attribute name="disable.apple.ui" default="false"/>
            <sequential>
                <jacoco:coverage destfile="${build.test.results.dir}/${code.name.base}_jacoco.exec">
                    <junit showoutput="true" fork="true" failureproperty="tests.failed" errorproperty="tests.failed" filtertrace="${test.filter.trace}" tempdir="${build.test.@{test.type}.results.dir}" timeout="${test.timeout}">
                        <batchtest todir="${build.test.@{test.type}.results.dir}">
                            <fileset dir="${build.test.@{test.type}.classes.dir}" includes="${test.includes}" excludes="${test.excludes}"/>
                        </batchtest>
                        <classpath refid="test.@{test.type}.run.cp"/>
                        <syspropertyset refid="test.@{test.type}.properties"/>
                        <jvmarg value="${test.bootclasspath.prepend.args}"/>
                        <jvmarg line="${test.run.args}"/>
                        <sysproperty key="apple.awt.UIElement" value="@{disable.apple.ui}"/>
                        <formatter type="brief" usefile="false"/>
                        <formatter type="xml"/>
                    </junit>
                </jacoco:coverage>
                <copy file="${build.test.results.dir}/${code.name.base}_jacoco.exec" todir="${suite.dir}/build/coverage"/>
                <copy todir="${suite.dir}/build/test-results">
                    <fileset dir="${build.test.results.dir}">
                        <include name="**/TEST*.xml"/>
                    </fileset>
                </copy>
                <fail if="tests.failed" unless="continue.after.failing.tests">Some tests failed; see details above.</fail>
            </sequential>
        </macrodef>
        <junit-impl test.type="${run.test.type}" disable.apple.ui="${disable.apple.ui}"/>
    </target>
</project>

A second Ant file (sonar‑jacoco‑suite.xml) defines the SonarQube configuration at the suite level, including database connection properties, project keys, source, binary and test paths, and the tasks to merge JaCoCo reports and run Sonar analysis.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="sonar-jacoco-suite" basedir="." xmlns:jacoco="antlib:org.jacoco.ant" xmlns:sonar="antlib:org.sonar.ant">
    <description>Builds the module suite otherSuite.</description>
    <property name="jacoco.dir" location="${nbplatform.default.harness.dir}/jacoco-0.7.1"/>
    <property name="result.exec.file" location="build/coverage"/>
    <property name="sonar.jdbc.url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/sonar?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=utf8"/>
    <property name="sonar.jdbc.username" value="sonar"/>
    <property name="sonar.jdbc.password" value="sonar"/>
    <property name="sonar.projectKey" value="org.codehaus.sonar:example-java-ant"/>
    <property name="sonar.projectName" value="Simple Java Project analyzed with the SonarQube Ant Task"/>
    <property name="sonar.projectVersion" value="1.0"/>
    <property name="sonar.language" value="java"/>
    <property file="nbproject/project.properties"/>
    <script language="javascript"><![CDATA[
        modulesName = project.getProperty("modules");
        modulesName = modulesName.replace(":",",");
        res = modulesName.split(",");
        srcModules = "";
        binariesModules = "";
        testModules = "";
        for (var i=0; i<res.length; i++) {
            srcModules += res[i]+"/src,";
            binariesModules += res[i]+"/build/classes,";
            testModules += res[i]+"/test,";
        }
        srcModules = srcModules.substring(0, srcModules.length - 1);
        binariesModules = binariesModules.substring(0, binariesModules.length - 1);
        testModules = testModules.substring(0, testModules.length - 1);
        project.setProperty("srcModulesPath",srcModules);
        project.setProperty("binariesModulesPath",binariesModules);
        project.setProperty("testModulesPath",testModules);
    ]]></script>
    <property name="sonar.sources" value="${srcModulesPath}"/>
    <property name="sonar.binaries" value="${binariesModulesPath}"/>
    <property name="sonar.tests" value="${testModulesPath}"/>
    <property name="sonar.dynamicAnalysis" value="reuseReports"/>
    <property name="sonar.junit.reportsPath" value="build/test-results"/>
    <property name="sonar.java.coveragePlugin" value="jacoco"/>
    <property name="sonar.jacoco.reportPath" value="${result.exec.file}/merged.exec"/>
    <taskdef uri="antlib:org.jacoco.ant" resource="org/jacoco/ant/antlib.xml">
        <classpath path="${jacoco.dir}/jacocoant.jar"/>
    </taskdef>
    <target name="merge-coverage">
        <jacoco:merge destfile="${result.exec.file}/merged.exec">
            <fileset dir="${result.exec.file}" includes="*.exec"/>
        </jacoco:merge>
    </target>
    <target name="sonar">
        <taskdef uri="antlib:org.sonar.ant" resource="org/sonar/ant/antlib.xml">
            <classpath path="${harness.dir}/sonar-ant-task-2.1/sonar-ant-task-2.1.jar"/>
        </taskdef>
        <sonar:sonar/>
    </target>
</project>

Additional steps include installing Jenkins plugins (JaCoCo, Mercurial/Subversion, Sonar), configuring the Jenkins system settings, creating a freestyle job that invokes the Ant build files, and adding a post‑build action to record JaCoCo coverage. Finally, the SonarQube database is prepared with a GRANT statement and the sonar.properties file is edited to enable MySQL.