Gradle is a build automation tool. It can automate build-related tasks such as
-
Running tests
-
Managing library dependencies
-
Analyzing code for style compliance
The gradle configuration for this project is defined in the build script build.gradle
.
To learn more about gradle build scripts, refer Build Scripts Basics. |
Running Gradle Commands
To run a Gradle command, open a command window on the project folder and enter the Gradle command. Gradle commands look like this:
-
On Windows:
gradlew <task1> <task2> …
e.g.gradlew clean allTests
-
On Mac/Linux:
./gradlew <task1> <task2>…
e.g../gradlew clean allTests
If you do not specify any tasks, Gradlew will run the default tasks clean headless allTests coverage
|
Cleaning the Project
-
clean
Deletes the files created during the previous build tasks (e.g. files in thebuild
folder). e.g../gradlew clean
clean to force Gradle to execute a task:When running a Gradle task, Gradle will try to figure out if the task needs running at all. If Gradle determines that the output of the task will be same as the previous time, it will not run the task. For example, it will not build the JAR file again if the relevant source files have not changed since the last time the JAR file was built. If we want to force Gradle to run a task, we can combine that task with clean . Once the build files have been clean ed, Gradle has no way to determine if the output will be same as before, so it will be forced to execute the task.
|
Creating the JAR file
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shadowJar
Creates theaddressbook.jar
file in thebuild/jar
folder, if the current file is outdated.
e.g../gradlew shadowJar
Why do we create a fat JAR? If we package only our own class files into the JAR file, it will not work properly unless the user has all the other JAR files (i.e. third party libraries) our classes depend on, which is rather inconvenient. Therefore, we package all dependencies into a single JAR files, creating what is also known as a fat JAR file. To create a fat JAR file, we use the Gradle plugin shadow jar. |
Rendering AsciiDoc files
-
asciidoctor
Converts AsciiDoc files indocs
to HTML format. Generated HTML files can be found inbuild/docs
. -
deployOfflineDocs
Updates the offline user guide, and its associated files, used by the Help window in the application. Deployed HTML files and images can be found insrc/main/resources/docs
.
Running the application
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run
Builds and runs the application. -
runShadow
Builds the application as a fat JAR, and then runs it.
Running code style checks
-
checkstyleMain
Runs the code style check for the main code base -
checkstyleTest
Runs the code style check for the test code base
The set of code style rules implemented can be found in config/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml
. To enable exceptions to code styles, add in the comment //CODESTYLE.OFF: RuleName
at the start of the section and //CODESTYLE.ON: RuleName
at the end of the section.
Running Tests
-
allTests
Runs all tests. -
guiTests
Runs all tests in theseedu.recruit.ui
andsystemtests
package -
nonGuiTests
Runs all non-GUI tests in theseedu.recruit
package -
headless
Sets the test mode as headless. The mode is effective for that Gradle run only so it should be combined with other test tasks.JDK 10
on Windows will fail to run tests in headless mode due to a JavaFX bug. Windows developers are highly recommended to use JDK9
.
Here are some examples:
-
./gradlew headless allTests
— Runs all tests in headless mode -
./gradlew clean nonGuiTests
— Cleans the project and runs non-GUI tests
Updating Dependencies
There is no need to run these Gradle tasks manually as they are called automatically by other relevant Gradle tasks.
-
compileJava
Checks whether the project has the required dependencies to compile and run the main program, and download any missing dependencies before compiling the classes.
Seebuild.gradle
→allprojects
→dependencies
→compile
for the list of dependencies required. -
compileTestJava
Checks whether the project has the required dependencies to perform testing, and download any missing dependencies before compiling the test classes.
Seebuild.gradle
→allprojects
→dependencies
→testCompile
for the list of dependencies required.