This document provides an overview of the Gradle build tool. It discusses Gradle's advantages over other build tools like Apache Ant, Apache Maven, and Apache Ivy. Key features of Gradle highlighted include its use of the Groovy language for build scripts, flexible and customizable builds, support for multi-project builds, caching, and integration with other tools. The document also provides examples of using Gradle for tasks like custom tasks, testing, plugins, and deployments.

1. Gradle 2.
Write once, build everywhere.
Sergey Morenets, morenets@mail.ru
June, 6 2015

2. About author
• Works in IT since 2000
• 11 year of Java SE/EE experience
• Regular speaker at Java conferences
• Author of “Development of Java applications” and
“Main errors in Java programming ”books
• Founder of http://it-simulator.com
• 3 years of Gradle usage

3. Agenda

4. Agenda

5. Agenda

6. Apache Ant
• Offers extreme flexibility
• Imposes no convention or project standards
• Maintenance headache
• Support Ruby, Groovy, JavaScript, Judoscript,
Jython scripting

7. Apache Ivy
• Agile dependency manager
• Transitive dependencies
• Ant & Maven integration
• Enhanced support of repositories

8. Apache Maven
• Support for dependency management
• Standard project layout
• Archetypes
• Hard customization
• Declarative approach
• Plugin execution framework

9. Build systems

10. Apache Maven

11. Ant plugin

13. Groovy plugin

15. Echo plugin

17. Gradle

19. Issue #1. XML
• Large and complex files are hard to understand
• Hierarchical structure limits the expressiveness
of the format
• Good format for the data and complex for the flow

20. Hans Dockter
• Founder of Gradle and Gradleware
• 13 years of experience as a software developer,
team leader, architect, trainer, and mentor
• Previously worked at Jboss and founded Jboss-IDE
• Holds a Diploma in Physics with a minor in Computer
Science
• Admirer of domain-driven-design

21. Slogan
• Make the impossible possible
• Make the possible easy
• Make the easy elegant

22. Solution #1. Groovy
• An agile and dynamic language for the Java
Virtual Machine
• Makes modern programming features available to
Java developers with almost-zero learning curve
• Provides the ability to statically type
check and statically compile your code for
robustness and performance
• Share base syntax, type system, packages
hierarchy with Java
• Every Gradle build file is Groovy script

23. Gradle

24. Gradle
• Development started in Apr 2008
• Current version 2.4 released in May 2015
• Default build tool for Android OS

25. Gradle overview
• A flexible general purpose build tool
• Programming tool
• Declarative builds and build-by-convention
• Multi-project support
• Powerful dependency management

26. Development
Version Release date
Maven 1.0 2004
Maven 2.0 2005
Maven 3.0 2010
Maven 3.1 2013
Maven 3.3 2015

27. Development
Version Release date
Gradle 0.7 2009
Gradle 1.0 2012
Gradle 1.5 2013
Gradle 2.0 2014
Gradle 2.4 2015

28. Build structure

29. Hello world
$ gradle helloWorld

30. build.gradle

31. Maven pom

33. Sample project

34. Sample project

35. Custom task
• Writes audit information at the end of the build
• Audit information includes project name and build
timestamp
• Audit files are located in the separate folder

36. Custom task

37. Custom task

39. Cache everything
• Remote metadata and artifacts
• Transitive dependency resolution
• Build execution plan
• Plugin inputs and outputs
• Test results

40. Daemon
• Improves startup and execution time of Gradle
• Initial Gradle command forks daemon process
• Subsequent Gradle commands reuse the build
daemon
• If daemon is currently busy then new daemon
process is started on-demand
• Useful for small tasks execution
• Expires after 3 hours of idle time

41. gradle.properties
• org.gradle.daemon=true
• org.gradle.configureondemand=true
• org.gradle.parallel=true
• org.gradle.java.home=C:Program
FilesJavajdk1.8.0_45
• org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx100m

42. Test execution
# of threads H2 – time(sec) MySQL – time(sec)
1 24,4 27,5
2 31,1 36,9
4 46,2 51,1
8 71,1 80,5

43. Plugin
• Reusable pieces of build logic
• Can be used in different projects/builds

44. Plugin
• Add tasks to the project
• Pre-configure added tasks with useful defaults
• Add dependency configurations to the project
• Add new properties and methods to existing type
via extensions

45. Plugin import

46. Plugin portal

47. Custom plugin
gradle helloWorld

48. Maven

49. Gradle

50. Integrates with everything

51. Gradle and Maven

52. Properties

53. Properties

54. Comparison
• Maven 3.3.3
• Gradle 2.4
• JDK 1.8.0.45
• Intel Core i7, 4 cores, 16 GB
• Optimized and default modes

55. Comparison
Operation Gradle
(opt)
Gradle
(daemon)
Gradle(no
daemon)
Maven Maven
(parall)
Build(sec) 8,03 10,73 13,68 12,40 13,02
Inc build(sec) 1,92 2,16 4,74 4,62 4,64
Clean(sec) 1,03 1,20 2,77 1,71 1,70

56. Gradle
Optimized Not optimized

57. Maven
Optimized Not optimized

58. Maven converter
• maven2Gradle is obsolete now
• Build init plugin converts:
o POM settings
o Dependencies
o Properties
o Java compiler settings
o Single- and multi-project settings
o Packaging of sources and tests

59. Repositories

60. Maven Scope

61. Maven Scope
Scopes:
• compile
• provided
• runtime
• test
• system
• import

62. Dependencies

63. Scope flexibility

64. Version management

65. Profiles
• build.gradle
• dev-profile.gradle
• test-profile.gradle
• $ gradle –Pprofile=dev build

66. Skip tasks
• $ gradle -PskipTests

67. Caching
• Gradle caches all compiles scripts by default
• Compiled scripts are put into .gradle folder
• Gradle uses compiled version if the script hasn’t
changed
• --recompile-scripts option discards cache

68. Wrapper
• Preferred way of starting a Gradle build
• Gradle will be automatically downloaded via
wrapper
• Includes shell script
• Useful for CI tasks

69. Practical tasks
• Multiple projects
• Liquibase
• Deployment

70. Multiple projects
• Huge project
• Multiple sub-projects/pom.xml files
• Complicated maintenance

71. Liquibase
• Plugins for 2 and 3 versions
• Lightweight front-end for Liquibase command-line
• Gradle task for each Liquibase command

72. Deployment
• Separate plugins for Jetty/Tomcat
• General plugin for multiple containers

73. Cargo plugin

74. Cargo plugin

75. Pros
• Native Java/Scala/Groovy support
• Ant/Maven/Ivy integration
• Full IDE support
• Flexible DSL
• Multiple third-party plugins(70+)
• Declarative & imperative approaches
• Rapid development
• Performance

76. Cons
• Compilation & run-time issues
• Larger learning curve
• Less community & industry support

77. Future

78. Practice
• https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-orm
• https://github.com/SpringSource/spring-framework
• https://github.com/gradle/gradle

79. Q&A
• Sergey Morenets, morenets@mail.ru