Introduction to
Gradle
UNIT II
Gradle Basics
• Gradle automates building,
testing, and deployment of
software from information
in build scripts.
Settings.gradle
• The settings file is a script file.
• It is either a settings.gradle file written
in Groovy or a settings.gradle.kts file
in Kotlin.
• The Groovy DSL and the Kotlin DSL
are the only accepted languages for
Gradle scripts.
• The settings file is typically found in
the root directory of the project.
build.gradle
• The build script is either a
build.gradle file written in
Groovy or a build.gradle.kts
file in Kotlin.
Dependency Management
• Dependency management is an automated technique for declaring and
resolving external resources required by a project.
• Gradle build scripts define the process to build projects that may require
external dependencies.
• Dependencies refer to JARs, plugins, libraries, or source code that
support building your project.
Version Catalog
• Version catalogs provide a way to centralize your dependency
declarations in a libs.versions.toml file.
• The catalog makes sharing dependencies and version configurations
between subprojects.
The version catalog typically contains four sections:
• [versions] to declare the version numbers that plugins and libraries will
reference.
• [libraries] to define the libraries used in the build files.
• [plugins] to define plugins.
Version Catalog
Declaring Dependencies
• To add a dependency to your
project, specify a dependency
in the dependencies block of
your build.gradle file.
Gradle Plugins
• Plugins can be applied to a Gradle build script to add new tasks,
configurations, or other build-related capabilities.
• Core plugins - Gradle develops and maintains a set of Core Plugins.
Ex: JavaPlugin (core plugin)
• Community plugins - Gradle’s community shares plugins via the Gradle
Plugin Portal to provide additional functionalities.
• The Spring Boot Gradle plugin packages executable JAR or WAR archives, and runs Spring Boot Java
applications.
• Local plugins - Gradle enables users to create custom plugins using APIs.
• Custom or local plugins are developed and used within a specific project or organization.
Incremental Builds & Cache
• An incremental build is a build that avoids running tasks whose inputs
have not changed since the previous build. Re-executing such tasks is
unnecessary if they would only re-produce the same output.
• The build cache stores previous build results and restores them when
needed. It prevents the redundant work and cost of executing
time-consuming and expensive processes.
Gradle in Eclipse IDE
• Install connect:
• Help -> market place -> search for “buildship gradle” -> install
• Configure:
• Windows -> preference -> gradle -> location installation directiory -> “path
of gradle”
• Apply and close
Running Gradle commands in windows
shell/ Git Bash (Linux Shell)
• Change path : cd “path”
• Gradle make dir: mkdir “Project Folder Name”
• Locate and change directory (cd) to project folder
Running Gradle commands in windows
shell/ Git Bash (Linux Shell)
• gradle init : command to initialize a new Gradle project with a
basic directory structure and default files
• Edit: vi editor, nano editor
• Vi build.gradle
• Edit :
• apply plugin: ‘java’
• apply plugin: ‘application’
• “esc” -> :wq to save and quit
• Verify edit:
• Cat build.gradle
Running Gradle commands in windows
shell/ Git Bash (Linux Shell)
• Build: gradle build
• Run: gradle run
• Test: gradle test
• gradle tasks: Lists all the available tasks in the project, including
custom tasks and built-in tasks.
Running Gradle commands in windows
shell/ Git Bash (Linux Shell)
• Check build details
• Gradle tasks
• For clean build
• gradle clean: Cleans the build directory.
• Gradle clean
• Gradle clean build
• Gradle clean build --info
