how does Hudson generate a job config.xml? - hudson

Question

I need your help !
I want to know how do Hudson generate a job's config.xml?
I explain: I want to add in my application a hudson-like build tool, to do this, a user will have, like in Hudson's GUI, define some parameters like path to jdk, where the pom.xml is stored, etc... and then the config.xml for this job is generated.
Once i will have the config.xml for this job, i will create and build it.
I tried to search for Hudson's API, but it's all about creating a job, building, deleting.. but no way to give it parameters (personalize it). This is a "create" code sample:
private void put(HttpClient client, String hudsonBaseURL,String jobName ,File configFile) throws IOException, HttpException {
PostMethod postMethod = new PostMethod(hudsonBaseURL+ "/createItem?name=" + jobName);
postMethod.setRequestHeader("Content-type","application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1");
postMethod.setRequestBody(new FileInputStream(configFile));
postMethod.setDoAuthentication(true);
try {
int status = client.executeMethod(postMethod);
System.out.println("Projet existe déjà\n"+status + "\n"+ postMethod.getResponseBodyAsString());
} finally {
postMethod.releaseConnection();
}
}
This method requires the config.xml to create a job.
I'm now trying to see the content of the hudson.war, inside its classes, but i have to say that this is not easy.
I wish i was clear.
Any idea would be welcome.
Nacef.

Answer 1

I recommend using Hudson's remote API for automating creation of a job.
Have a look at http://your.hudson.server/api. Hudson will return HTML documentation for the remote API. Under Create Job you'll see that you can POST a config.xml to a Hudson URL in order to create a job. You should be able to create a template job manually, then use that config.xml as a template in your automated system.
As described in this previous answer, job configuration can be found in HUDSON_HOME/jobs/[name]/config.xml.