# B.23 ImportTask
Imports another build file into the current project.
On execution it will read another Phing file into the same Project. Functionally it is nearly the same as copy and pasting the imported file onto the end of the importing file.
The import task may only be used as a top-level task. This means that it may not be used in a target.
Table B.23:聽Attributes
NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired`file``String`The file to import.n/aYes`optional``Boolean`If true, do not stop the build if the file does not exist.`false`No
B.23.1 Target Overriding
If a target in the main file is also present in at least one of the imported files, the one from the main file takes precedence.
So if I import for example a `docs/build.xml` file named `builddocs`, that contains a "`docs`" target, I can redefine it in my main buildfile and that is the one that will be called. This makes it easy to keep the same target name, so that the overriding target is still called by any other targets--in either the main or imported buildfile(s)--for which it is a dependency, with a different implementation. The target from `docs/build.xml` is made available by the name "`builddocs.docs`". This enables the new implementation to call the old target, thus enhancing it with tasks called before or after it.
B.23.2 Special Properties
Imported files are treated as they are present in the main buildfile. This makes it easy to understand, but it makes it impossible for them to reference files and resources relative to their path. Because of this, for every imported file, Phing adds a property that contains the path to the imported buildfile. With this path, the imported buildfile can keep resources and be able to reference them relative to its position.
So if I import for example a `docs/build.xml` file named `builddocs`, I can get its path as `phing.file.builddocs`, similarly to the `phing.file` property of the main buildfile. Additionally, the directory will be stored in `phing.dir.builddocs`.
Note that "builddocs" is not the filename, but the name attribute present in the imported project tag.
If import file does not have a name attribute, the `phing.file.projectname` and `phing.dir.projectname` properties will not be set.
B.23.3 Resolving Files Against the Imported File
Suppose your main build file called `importing.xml` imports a build file `imported.xml` , located anywhere on the file system, and `imported.xml` reads a set of properties from `imported.properties` :
```
<!-- importing.xml -->
<project name="importing" basedir="." default="...">
<import file="${path_to_imported}/imported.xml"/>
</project>
<!-- imported.xml -->
<project name="imported" basedir="." default="...">
<property file="imported.properties"/>
</project>
```
This snippet however will resolve `imported.properties` against the basedir of `importing.xml` , because the basedir of `imported.xml` is ignored by Phing. The right way to use `imported.properties` is:
```
<!-- imported.xml -->
<project name="imported" basedir="." default="...">
<property file="${phing.file.imported}/imported.properties"/>
</project>
```
As explained above `${phing.file.imported}` stores the full path of the build script, that defines the project called *imported*, (in short it stores the path to `imported.xml`) and `${phing.dir.imported}` stores its directory. This technique also allows `imported.xml` to be used as a standalone file (without being imported in other project).
B.23.4 Examples
```
<import file="path/to/build.xml"/>
<import file="path/to/build.xml" optional="true"/>
```
Additionally, `ImportTask` supports Filesets, i.e. you can easily include/exclude one or more files. For more information, see [Appendix聽D](apd.html "Appendix D. Core Types").
```
<import" >
<fileset dir=".">
<include name="path/to/build.xml" />
</fileset>
<filelist dir="." files="path/to/build.xml"/>
</import>
```
- Phing User Guide
- Preface
- 1. About this book
- 1.1. Authors
- 1.2. Copyright
- 1.3. License
- 1.4. DocBook
- 1.4.1. Building the documentation
- 1.4.2. Template for new tasks
- 1.4.3. Customization of the look & feel of the rendered outputs
- 1.4.4. DocBook v5 elements used in the manual and their meaning
- 2. Introduction
- 2.1. What Phing Is
- 2.2. Phing & Binarycloud: History
- 2.3. How Phing Works
- 2.4. Cool, so how can I help?
- 2.4.1. Participating in the development
- 3. Setting-up Phing
- 3.1. System Requirements
- 3.1.1. Operating Systems
- 3.1.2. Software Dependencies
- 3.2. Obtaining Phing
- 3.2.1. Distribution Files
- 3.2.2. Getting the latest source from Phing Git repository
- 3.3. Composer Install
- 3.4. Phar package
- 3.5. Running Phing
- 3.5.1. Command Line
- 3.5.2. Supported command line arguments
- 4. Getting started
- 4.1. XML And Phing
- 4.2. Writing A Simple Buildfile
- 4.2.1. Project Element
- 4.2.2. Target Element
- 4.2.2.1. Target attributes
- 4.2.3. Task Elements
- 4.2.4. Property Element
- 4.2.4.1. Built-in Properties
- 4.3. More Complex Buildfile
- 4.3.1. Handling source dependencies
- 4.4. Relax NG Grammar
- 5. Project components
- 5.1. Projects
- 5.2. Version
- 5.3. Project Components in General
- 5.4. Targets
- 5.5. Tasks
- 5.6. Types
- 5.6.1. Basics
- 5.6.2. Referencing Types
- 5.7. Basic Types
- 5.7.1. FileSet
- 5.7.2. FileList
- 5.7.3. FilterChains and Filters
- 5.7.4. File Mappers
- 5.8. Conditions
- 5.8.1. not
- 5.8.2. and
- 5.8.3. or
- 5.8.4. xor
- 5.8.5. os
- 5.8.6. equals
- 5.8.7. versioncompare
- 5.8.8. http
- 5.8.9. socket
- 5.8.10. hasfreespace
- 5.8.11. isset
- 5.8.12. contains
- 5.8.13. istrue
- 5.8.14. isfalse
- 5.8.15. ispropertytrue
- 5.8.16. ispropertyfalse
- 5.8.17. referenceexists
- 5.8.18. available
- 5.8.19. filesmatch
- 5.8.20. isfileselected
- 5.8.21. isfailure
- 5.8.22. matches
- 6. Extending Phing
- 6.1. Extension Possibilities
- 6.1.1. Tasks
- 6.1.2. Types
- 6.1.3. Mappers
- 6.2. Source Layout
- 6.2.1. Files And Directories
- 6.2.2. File Naming Conventions
- 6.2.3. Coding Standards
- 6.3. System Initialization
- 6.3.1. Wrapper Scripts
- 6.3.2. The Main Application (phing.php)
- 6.3.3. The Phing Class
- 6.4. System Services
- 6.4.1. The Exception system
- 6.5. Build Lifecycle
- 6.5.1. How Phing Parses Buildfiles
- 6.6. Writing Tasks
- 6.6.1. Creating A Task
- 6.6.2. Using the Task
- 6.6.3. Source Discussion
- 6.6.4. Task Structure
- 6.6.5. Includes
- 6.6.6. Class Declaration
- 6.6.7. Class Properties
- 6.6.8. The Constructor
- 6.6.9. Setter Methods
- 6.6.10. Creator Methods
- 6.6.11. init() Method
- 6.6.12. main() Method
- 6.6.13. Arbitrary Methods
- 6.7. Writing Types
- 6.7.1. Creating a DataType
- 6.7.2. Using the DataType
- 6.7.3. Source Discussion
- 6.7.3.1. Getters & Setters
- 6.7.3.2. The getRef() Method
- 6.8. Writing Mappers
- 6.8.1. Creating a Mapper
- 6.8.2. Using the Mapper
- A. Fact Sheet
- A.1. Built-In Properties
- A.2. Command Line Arguments
- A.3. Distribution File Layout
- A.4. Program Exit Codes
- A.5. The LGPL License
- A.6. The GFDL License
- B. Core tasks
- B.1. AdhocTaskdefTask
- B.1.1. Examples
- B.2. AdhocTypedefTask
- B.2.1. Example
- B.3. AppendTask
- B.3.1. Examples
- B.3.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.4. ApplyTask
- B.4.1. Examples
- B.4.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.5. AttribTask
- B.5.1. Example
- B.5.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.6. AvailableTask
- B.6.1. Examples
- B.7. Basename
- B.7.1. Examples
- B.8. ChmodTask
- B.8.1. Examples
- B.8.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.9. ChownTask
- B.9.1. Examples
- B.9.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.10. ConditionTask
- B.10.1. Examples
- B.10.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.11. CopyTask
- B.11.1. Examples
- B.11.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.12. DefaultExcludes
- B.12.1. Examples
- B.13. DeleteTask
- B.13.1. Examples
- B.13.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.14. DependSet
- B.14.1. Examples
- B.14.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.15. Diagnostics
- B.15.1. Example
- B.16. Dirname
- B.16.1. Example
- B.17. EchoTask
- B.17.1. Examples
- B.17.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.18. EchoPropertiesTask
- B.18.1. Example
- B.19. ExecTask
- B.19.1. Examples
- B.19.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.20. FailTask
- B.20.1. Examples
- B.20.2. Parameters specified as nested elements.
- B.21. ForeachTask
- B.21.1. Examples
- B.21.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.22. IfTask
- B.22.1. Examples
- B.23. ImportTask
- B.23.1. Target Overriding
- B.23.2. Special Properties
- B.23.3. Resolving Files Against the Imported File
- B.23.4. Examples
- B.24. IncludePathTask
- B.24.1. Examples
- B.25. InputTask
- B.25.1. Examples
- B.26. LoadFileTask
- B.26.1. Examples
- B.26.2. Supported Nested Tags:
- B.27. MkdirTask
- B.27.1. Examples
- B.28. MoveTask
- B.28.1. Examples
- B.28.2. Attributes and Nested Elements
- B.29. PathConvert
- B.30. PhingTask
- B.30.1. Examples
- B.30.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.30.3. Base directory of the new project
- B.31. PhingCallTask
- B.31.1. Examples
- B.31.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.32. Phingversion
- B.32.1. Example
- B.33. PhpEvalTask
- B.33.1. Examples
- B.33.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.34. PropertyTask
- B.34.1. Examples
- B.34.2. Supported Nested Tags:
- B.35. PropertyPromptTask
- B.35.1. Examples
- B.36. Record
- B.36.1. Example
- B.37. ReflexiveTask
- B.37.1. Examples
- B.37.2. Supported Nested Tags:
- B.38. ResolvePathTask
- B.38.1. Examples
- B.39. Retry
- B.39.1. Example
- B.40. RunTargetTask
- B.40.1. Example
- B.41. SleepTask
- B.41.1. Example
- B.42. SwitchTask
- B.42.1. Supported Nested Tags
- B.42.2. Examples
- B.43. TaskdefTask
- B.43.1. Examples
- B.43.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.44. Tempfile Task
- B.44.1. Example
- B.45. TouchTask
- B.45.1. Examples
- B.45.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.46. TruncateTask
- B.46.1. Examples
- B.47. TryCatchTask
- B.47.1. Examples
- B.48. TstampTask
- B.48.1. Examples
- B.48.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.49. TypedefTask
- B.49.1. Examples
- B.49.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.50. UpToDateTask
- B.50.1. Examples
- B.50.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.51. WaitForTask
- B.51.1. Examples
- B.51.2. Supported Nested Tags
- B.52. XsltTask
- B.52.1. Examples
- B.52.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C. Optional tasks
- C.1. ApiGenTask
- C.1.1. Example
- C.2. AutoloaderTask
- C.2.1. Example
- C.3. ComposerTask
- C.3.1. Supported Nested Tags
- C.4. CoverageMergerTask
- C.4.1. Example
- C.4.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.5. CoverageReportTask
- C.5.1. Example
- C.5.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.6. CoverageSetupTask
- C.6.1. Example
- C.6.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.7. CoverageThresholdTask
- C.7.1. Example
- C.7.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.8. DbDeployTask
- C.8.1. Example
- C.9. ExportPropertiesTask
- C.9.1. Example
- C.10. FileHashTask
- C.10.1. Example
- C.11. FileSizeTask
- C.11.1. Example
- C.12. FileSyncTask
- C.12.1. Examples
- C.13. FtpDeployTask
- C.13.1. Example
- C.13.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.14. GitArchiveTask
- C.14.1. Example
- C.15. GitBranchTask
- C.15.1. Example
- C.16. GitCheckoutTask
- C.16.1. Example
- C.17. GitCloneTask
- C.17.1. Example
- C.18. GitCommitTask
- C.18.1. Example
- C.18.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.19. GitFetchTask
- C.19.1. Example
- C.20. GitGcTask
- C.20.1. Example
- C.21. GitInitTask
- C.21.1. Example
- C.22. GitLogTask
- C.22.1. Example
- C.23. GitMergeTask
- C.23.1. Example
- C.24. GitPullTask
- C.24.1. Example
- C.25. GitPushTask
- C.25.1. Example
- C.26. GitTagTask
- C.26.1. Example
- C.27. GitDescribeTask
- C.27.1. Example
- C.28. GrowlNotifyTask
- C.28.1. Examples
- C.29. HgAddTask
- C.29.1. Example
- C.29.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.30. HgArchiveTask
- C.30.1. Example
- C.31. HgCloneTask
- C.31.1. Example
- C.32. HgCommitTask
- C.32.1. Example
- C.33. HgInitTask
- C.33.1. Example
- C.34. HgLogTask
- C.34.1. Example
- C.35. HgPullTask
- C.35.1. Example
- C.36. HgPushTask
- C.36.1. Example
- C.37. HgRevertTask
- C.37.1. Example
- C.38. HgTagTask
- C.38.1. Example
- C.39. HgUpdateTask
- C.39.1. Example
- C.40. HipchatTask
- C.40.1. Example
- C.41. HttpGetTask
- C.41.1. Example
- C.41.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.41.3. Global configuration
- C.42. HttpRequestTask
- C.42.1. Example
- C.42.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.42.3. Global configuration
- C.43. IniFileTask
- C.43.1. Supported Nested Tags
- C.43.2. Example
- C.44. IoncubeEncoderTask
- C.44.1. Example
- C.44.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.45. IoncubeLicenseTask
- C.45.1. Example
- C.45.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.46. JsHintTask
- C.46.1. Example
- C.46.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.47. JslLintTask
- C.47.1. Example
- C.47.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.48. JsMinTask
- C.48.1. Example
- C.48.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.49. JsonValidateTask
- C.49.1. Example
- C.50. LiquibaseTask
- C.50.1. Example
- C.50.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.51. LiquibaseChangeLogTask
- C.51.1. Example
- C.51.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.52. LiquibaseDbDocTask
- C.52.1. Example
- C.52.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.53. LiquibaseDiffTask
- C.53.1. Example
- C.53.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.54. LiquibaseRollbackTask
- C.54.1. Example
- C.54.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.55. LiquibaseTagTask
- C.55.1. Example
- C.55.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.56. LiquibaseUpdateTask
- C.56.1. Example
- C.56.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.57. MailTask
- C.57.1. Example
- C.57.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.58. ManifestTask
- C.58.1. Supported Nested Tags
- C.59. NotifySendTask
- C.60. PackageAsPathTask
- C.60.1. Example
- C.61. ParallelTask
- C.61.1. Example
- C.62. PatchTask
- C.62.1. Example
- C.63. PathToFileSetTask
- C.63.1. Examples
- C.64. PDOSQLExecTask
- C.64.1. Example
- C.64.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.65. PearPackageTask
- C.65.1. Example
- C.65.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.66. PearPackage2Task
- C.66.1. Example
- C.66.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.67. PharDataTask
- C.67.1. Example
- C.67.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.68. PharPackageTask
- C.68.1. Example
- C.68.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.69. PhkPackageTask
- C.69.1. Example
- C.69.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.70. PhpCodeSnifferTask
- C.70.1. Examples
- C.70.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.71. PHPCPDTask
- C.71.1. Examples
- C.71.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.72. PHPLocTask
- C.72.1. Examples
- C.72.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.73. PHPMDTask
- C.73.1. Example
- C.73.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.74. PhpDependTask
- C.74.1. Example
- C.74.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.75. PhpDocumentor2Task
- C.75.1. Example
- C.75.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.76. PhpLintTask
- C.76.1. Example
- C.76.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.77. PHPUnitTask
- C.77.1. Supported Nested Tags
- C.77.2. Example
- C.77.3. Supported Nested Tags
- C.78. PHPUnitReport
- C.78.1. Example
- C.79. PropertyCopy
- C.79.1. Example
- C.80. PropertyRegexTask
- C.80.1. Match expressions
- C.80.2. Replace
- C.80.3. Example
- C.81. ReplaceRegexpTask
- C.81.1. Supported Nested Tags
- 1. PropertySelector
- 1.1. Select expressions
- 1.2. Example
- C.82. rSTTask
- C.82.1. Features
- C.82.2. Examples
- C.82.3. Supported Nested Tags
- C.83. S3PutTask
- C.83.1. Example
- C.83.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.84. S3GetTask
- C.84.1. Example
- C.85. SassTask
- C.85.1. Example
- C.85.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.86. ScpTask
- C.86.1. Example
- C.86.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.87. SmartyTask
- C.88. SonarTask
- C.88.1. Examples
- C.88.1.1. Minimal Example
- C.88.1.2. Full Example
- C.88.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.89. SortList
- C.89.1. Example
- C.90. SshTask
- C.90.1. Example
- C.90.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.91. SvnCheckoutTask
- C.91.1. Example
- C.92. SvnCommitTask
- C.92.1. Example
- C.93. SvnCopyTask
- C.93.1. Example
- C.94. SvnExportTask
- C.94.1. Example
- C.95. SvnInfoTask
- C.95.1. Example
- C.96. SvnLastRevisionTask
- C.96.1. Example
- C.97. SvnListTask
- C.97.1. Example
- C.98. SvnLogTask
- C.98.1. Example
- C.99. SvnUpdateTask
- C.99.1. Example
- C.100. SvnSwitchTask
- C.100.1. Example
- C.101. SvnProplistTask
- C.101.1. Example
- C.102. SvnPropgetTask
- C.102.1. Example
- C.103. SvnPropsetTask
- C.103.1. Example
- C.104. StopwatchTask
- C.104.1. Example
- C.105. SymfonyConsoleTask
- C.105.1. Examples
- C.105.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.106. SymlinkTask
- C.106.1. Example
- C.106.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.107. TarTask
- C.107.1. Example
- C.107.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.108. ThrowTask
- C.108.1. Example
- C.109. UntarTask
- C.109.1. Example
- C.109.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.110. UnzipTask
- C.110.1. Example
- C.110.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.111. Variable
- C.111.1. Example
- C.112. VersionTask
- C.112.1. Example
- C.113. WikiPublishTask
- C.113.1. Example
- C.114. XmlLintTask
- C.114.1. Examples
- C.114.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.115. XmlPropertyTask
- C.115.1. Example
- C.116. ZendCodeAnalyzerTask
- C.116.1. Example
- C.116.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.117. ZendGuardEncodeTask
- C.117.1. Example
- C.117.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.118. ZendGuardLicenseTask
- C.118.1. Examples
- C.119. ZipTask
- C.119.1. Example
- C.119.2. Supported Nested Tags
- C.120. ZSDTPackTask
- C.120.1. Example
- C.121. ZSDTValidateTask
- C.121.1. Example
- D. Core Types
- D.1. Description
- D.1.1. Usage Examples
- D.2. Excludes
- D.2.1. Nested tags
- D.2.2. Usage Examples
- D.3. FileList
- D.3.1. Usage Examples
- D.4. FileSet
- D.4.1. Using wildcards
- D.4.2. Usage Examples
- D.4.3. Nested tags
- D.4.4. Related types
- D.5. DirSet
- D.5.1. Using wildcards
- D.5.2. Usage Examples
- D.5.3. Nested tags
- D.5.4. Related types
- D.6. PatternSet
- D.6.1. Usage Example
- D.6.2. Nested tags
- D.7. Path / Classpath
- D.7.1. Nested tags
- D.8. PearPackageFileSet
- D.8.1. Usage Examples
- D.8.2. Nested tags
- E. Core filters
- E.1. PhingFilterReader
- E.1.1. Nested tags
- E.1.2. Advanced
- E.2. ExpandProperties
- E.3. ConcatFilter
- E.4. HeadFilter
- E.5. IconvFilter
- E.6. Line Contains
- E.6.1. Nested tags
- E.7. LineContainsRegexp
- E.7.1. Nested tags
- E.8. PrefixLines
- E.9. ReplaceTokens
- E.9.1. Nested tags
- E.10. ReplaceTokensWithFile
- E.10.1. Nested tags
- E.11. ReplaceRegexp
- E.11.1. Nested tags
- E.12. SortFilter
- E.13. StripLineBreaks
- E.14. StripLineComments
- E.14.1. Nested tags
- E.15. StripPhpComments
- E.16. StripWhitespace
- E.17. TabToSpaces
- E.18. TailFilter
- E.19. TidyFilter
- E.19.1. Nested tags
- E.20. XincludeFilter
- E.21. XsltFilter
- E.21.1. Nested tags
- F. Core mappers
- F.1. Common Attributes
- F.2. ChainedMapper
- F.2.1. Examples
- F.3. CompositeMapper
- F.3.1. Examples
- F.4. FirstMatchMapper
- F.4.1. Examples
- F.5. CutDirsMapper
- F.5.1. Examples
- F.6. FlattenMapper
- F.6.1. Examples
- F.7. GlobMapper
- F.7.1. Examples
- F.8. IdentityMapper
- F.9. MergeMapper
- F.9.1. Examples
- F.10. RegexpMapper
- F.10.1. Examples
- G. Core selectors
- G.1. Contains
- G.2. Date
- G.3. Depend
- G.4. Depth
- G.5. Different
- G.6. Filename
- G.7. Present
- G.8. Containsregexp
- G.9. Size
- G.10. Type
- G.11. And
- G.12. Majority
- G.13. None
- G.14. Not
- G.15. Or
- G.16. Readable
- G.17. Writable
- G.18. Executable
- G.19. Selector
- G.20. Symlink Selector
- H. Project Components
- H.1. Phing Projects
- H.1.1. Example
- H.1.2.
- H.1.3. Attributes
- H.2. Targets
- H.2.1. Example
- H.2.2. Attributes
- I. Loggers and Listeners
- I.1. Listeners
- I.2. Loggers
- I.3. DefaultLogger
- I.4. MailLogger
- I.5. NoBannerLogger
- I.6. ProfileLogger
- I.7. StatisticsListener
- I.8. TimestampedLogger
- J. File Formats
- J.1. Build File Format
- J.2. Property File Format
- Bibliography
- International Standards
- Licenses
- Open Source Projects
- Manuals
- Other Resources