# Ant & External tools

## Ant

Ant support allows you to create, import, export, configure and run tasks / buildfiles using the Workbench. Any Ant buildfile configuration you create can be used as part of the build process for a project, which will run in the specified order every time the project is built.

Whether run as a stand-alone Ant task or as a project builder, each At buildfile can be configured to provide its output in either (or all of) of:

- The Console view
- A file in the local filesystem
- A custom Ant logger

## External tools

External tools allow you to configure and run programs, batch files, Ant buildfiles, and others using the Workbench. Any external tool configuration you create can be used as part of the build process for a project, which will run in the specified order every time the project is built.

Whether run as a stand-alone tool or as a project builder, each external tool can be configured to provide its output in either (or both) of:

- The Console view
- A file in the local filesystem

Ant support
External tools
Builds

Running external tools
Running Ant buildfiles

External Tools preferences
External Tools and Ant icons
Console view