Gradle Tutorial for Beginners
2019-10-15 05:15:54

Gradle Tutorial for Beginners

Gradle is the next evolutionary step in JVM build tools. Gradle has moved the concepts into the best ideas to the next level by learning lessons from Ant and Maven. The main difference between Maven and Gradle is that there is no XML syntax. Gradle models the problem domain using Domain Specific Language (DSL) which is implemented in groovy as a first citizen language.

What is Gradle

Gradle is an open-source build automation tool which focuses on performance and flexibility. The Gradle build scripts are written using a groovy or kotlin DSL(Domain Specific Language). Gradle is an official android build open-source system. The Gradle Android plugin and the android studio are the official tools which are provided and maintained by the Android SDK tools team.

Why do we use Gradle

  1. Highly customizable: Gradle is modeled in a way that it is customizable and extensible in the most fundamental ways.
  2. Fast: Gradle completes all the tasks quickly by reusing outputs from previous executions, processing only inputs that change, and executing tasks in parallel.
  3. Powerful: Gradle is an official build tool for android, and it comes with the support for many popular languages and technologies.

Projects and tasks in Gradle

In Gradle, everything is based on two things that are projects and tasks. Every Gradle build is made up of one or more projects, and these projects contain some task.

What is a Gradle project?

In Gradle, a project represents a JAR library or a web application. It may also represent a distributed ZIP which is assembled from the JARs produced by other projects. A project deploys an application to staging or production environments.  Each project in Gradle is made up of one or more tasks. A task mainly represents an atomic piece of work which a build performs.

What is a Gradle Task?

In Gradle, Task is a piece of work which a build performs. For example, it can compile some classes, create a JAR, generate Javadoc, and also publish some archives to a repository.