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Gradle Introduction#

What Is Gradle?#

  • Gradle is an open-source build automation tool that is designed to be flexible enough to build almost any type of software.
  • Build automation is the process of automating the creation of a software build and the associated processes including: compiling computer source code into binary code, packaging binary code, and running automated tests.
  • Gradle runs on the JVM and you must have a Java Development Kit (JDK) installed to use it.
  • More information

Gradle Installation#

  • Gradle runs on all major operating systems and requires only a Java Development Kit version 8 or higher to run. To check, run java -version on your command prompt.
  • Then you can go to gradle.org to download the binary-only following the version that you want to use.
  • After the download is completed, you can extract it at any folder. Then go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced system setting -> Environment Variables. Then create a GRADLE_HOME with value is the path to your gradle folder.

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  • Then go to Path in System Variables --> Choose New --> Browse --> go to the folder bin in your gradle folder.

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  • Finally, you can open cmd and use command gradle --version to check your gradle installation. You would see the result as below:
C:\Users\bono_>gradle --version

------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 6.8.3
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2021-02-22 16:13:28 UTC
Revision:     9e26b4a9ebb910eaa1b8da8ff8575e514bc61c78

Kotlin:       1.4.20
Groovy:       2.5.12
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.9 compiled on September 27 2020
JVM:          1.8.0_281 (Oracle Corporation 25.281-b09)
OS:           Windows 10 10.0 amd64

Some Gradle Commands#

Gradle Commands Description
gradle check Gradle will execute all checks (for plugins that we added Ex: checkstyle plugin) and tests in all subprojects, but we have to note that when we run this command gradle test will be executed first, if you want to run a specific test you can use gradle :<projectName>:check. Gradle will not show many logs except if there are some errors. This command is the same with mvn verify of Maven
gradle test Gradle will execute all unit tests in all subprojects. This command is the same with mvn test of Maven.
gradle :<task name> Execute a task that defined in the build.gradle.
gradle :<subproject>:<task Name> Execute a task that defined in the build.gradle of a subProject.
gradle assemble This builds whatever is the appropriate package for the project, for example a JAR for Java libraries or a WAR for traditional Java webapps, this command is the same with mvn package of Maven.
gradle publishToMavenLocal this command will crate a package and a depencency of your project into local repository of Maven like the command mvn install.
gradle build this command builds for the build task to designate assembling all outputs and running all checks.
gradle run It is common for applications to be run with the run task, which assembles the application and executes some script or binary.
gradle clean delete the contents of the build directory, this command is like mvn clean of Maven
gradle tasks gives you a list of the main tasks of the selected project
gradle bootRun Runs project as a Spring Boot application.
gradle <action> -Dorg.gradle.logging.level=debug log out everything in the action
gradle -q projects view the structure of project if project contains many subprojects

Gradle Build Phases#

  • Gradle build phases:

  • Initialization: settings.gradle this file will loaded and readed first then the gradle will know to build single or multiple projects. more information.

  • Configuration: In this step the build script (build.gradle) will be read and executed.

  • Execution: In this step, if tasks names exist in the build script then they will be executed.

Gradle And Maven Comparison#

Almost of us is familar with Maven, so I just put some main points about Maven there.

  • Maven is used for project build automation using Java. It helps you map out how a particular software is built, as well as its different dependencies. It uses an XML file to describe the project that you are building, the dependencies of the software with regards to third-party modules and parts, the build order, as well as the needed plugins. There are pre-defined targets for tasks such as packaging and compiling.

  • Maven will download libraries and plugins from the different repositories and then puts them all in a cache on your local machine. While predominantly used for Java projects, you can use it for Scala, Ruby, and C#, as well as a host of other languages.

  • The following table describes the differences between the two tools:

Basis Gradle Maven
Based on Gradle is based on developing domain-specific language projects. Maven is based on developing pure Java language-based software.
Configuration It uses a Groovy-based Domain-specific language(DSL) for creating project structure. It uses Extensible Markup Language(XML) for creating project structure.
Focuses on Developing applications by adding new features to them. Developing applications in a given time limit.
Performance It performs better than maven as it optimized for tracking only current running task. It does not create local temporary files during software creation hence uses large time.
Java Compilation It avoids compilation. It is necessary to compile.
Usability It is a new tool, which requires users to spend a lot of time to get used to it. This tool is a known tool for many users and is easily available.
Customization This tool is highly customizable as it supports a variety of IDE’s. This tool serves a limited amount of developers and is not that customizable.
Languages supported It supports software development in Java, C, C++, and Groovy. It supports software development in Scala, C#, and Ruby.
MAVEN GRADLE
compile compile
provided compileOnly, testCompileOnly (*)
system
runtime runtime
test testCompile, testRuntime

Create A Sample Gradle Project With Spring Boot#

  • You can go to this page to generate a gradle project with spring boot as the example in the image below.

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