“Failed to create task or type antlib:org.apache.maven.artifact.ant:mvn” error in Ant

Question

Ant build failed to run while running the ant tasks in build.xml . I got the following error in the console:

Buildfile: F:\Eclipse Projects\my_project\build.xml
  [typedef] Could not load definitions from resource org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/antlib.xml. It could not be found.

BUILD FAILED
F:\my_project\build.xml:32: Problem: failed to create task or type antlib:org.apache.maven.artifact.ant:mvn
Cause: The name is undefined.
Action: Check the spelling.
Action: Check that any custom tasks/types have been declared.
Action: Check that any <presetdef>/<macrodef> declarations have taken place.
No types or tasks have been defined in this namespace yet

This appears to be an antlib declaration. 
Action: Check that the implementing library exists in one of:
        -F:\eclipse\plugins\org.apache.ant_1.8.3.v20120321-1730\lib
        -C:\Users\Lucky\.ant\lib
        -a directory added on the command line with the -lib argument

I placed the maven-ant-tasks jar file in eclipse plugin's folder and in the WinAnt ANT_HOME/lib directory and also included in the classpath. But it didn't solve my problem and this answer also couldn't solve the issue.

Answer 1

1. Create a lib directory in the root of your project and place the maven-ant-tasks.jar file inside it.
2. Include the import statement in your build.xml

<path id="maven-ant-tasks.classpath" path="lib/maven-ant-tasks-2.1.3.jar" />
<typedef resource="org/apache/maven/artifact/ant/antlib.xml" uri="antlib:org.apache.maven.artifact.ant" classpathref="maven-ant-tasks.classpath" />

The above steps solved my issue. Hope this is helpful to someone in the future.

Alternate solutions,

• You can also place the maven-ant-tasks.jar file under the ANT_HOME/lib folder to solve this issue.
• Or you could have it under the eclipse plugins folder.
  eg. eclipse\\plugins\\org.apache.ant_1.8.3.v20120321-1730\\lib

Answer 2

In my case, i already had the maven-ant-taksk.jar into directory 'eclipse\\plugins\\org.apache.ant_1.8.3.v20120321-1730\\lib'.

I'm using eclipse, so what i needed was, go to Ant Runtime on menu Windows > Preferences > Ant > Runtime, select "Ant Home Entries" , click on "Ant Home" button e select the Ant home directory

'eclipse\plugins\org.apache.ant_1.8.3.v20120321-1730\lib'

It worked!