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Gradle Basics

Core Concepts​

Gradle is an open-source build automation tool that simplifies software development by automating tasks such as compiling code, running tests, managing dependencies, and packaging software. Here are its core features and concepts:

  1. Dependency Management

    • 📦 Dependencies are libraries or components your project relies on.
    • 🔄 Gradle automates the process of managing dependencies by:
      • 📋 Allowing developers to specify required libraries and versions in the build configuration.
      • 🌐 Automatically resolving transitive dependencies and downloading the correct versions from repositories.

  2. Build Configuration

    • 🛠️ Software projects require tasks like compiling, testing, and packaging code.
    • ⚙️ Gradle simplifies this by using a configuration-based approach:
      • 📝 Developers define the structure and requirements of their project in a build configuration file.
      • 🔧 Gradle provides common tasks to handle these requirements, reducing the need for custom scripts.
      • 🧩 For additional custom functionality, Gradle offers APIs to create reusable custom tasks.

  3. Tasks and Plugins

    • 🔌 Gradle supports a wide range of build requirements out of the box.
    • 🛠️ It is adaptable through plugins, which allow developers to extend its functionality.
    • 🌟 Many community-contributed plugins are available for specialized tasks.

  4. Build Lifecycle

    • 🔄 Gradle’s build lifecycle determines how tasks are executed, enabling efficient and modular builds.
    • 📈 Understanding the build lifecycle is useful for maintaining and optimizing complex Gradle configurations.

Dependency Management​

Dependency Management

Software Development LifeCycle​

Software Development LifeCycle

Gradle project structure​

Most developers encounter Gradle through an existing project. The presence of gradlew and gradlew.batfiles in the root directory indicates Gradle usage.

A typical Gradle project structure looks like this:

project structure

  1. Gradle directory to store wrapper files and more
  2. Gradle version catalog for dependency management
  3. Gradle wrapper scripts
  4. Gradle settings file to define a root project name and subprojects
  5. Gradle build scripts of the two subprojects - subproject-a and subproject-b
  6. Source code and/or additional files for the projects