One of the most common questions for anyone using Gradle is what’s the difference between gradle vs. gradlew. Each is a Gradle command with a particular use case in mind. Here you’ll learn what each command does, and when to use one over the other. Quick summaryIf you’re working in a project that has a […]
Integrating AWS CodeBuild into Jenkins pipelines
With Jenkins being so well adopted as the continuous integration service of choice, why would we consider other tools like AWS CodeBuild? Whilst Jenkins is the feature rich old-timer of the CI world with over 1,500 plugins, some tasks are just better suited to other tools. In this article you’ll discover why you’d want to […]
Running Jenkins jobs in AWS ECS with slave agents
So you’ve setup your Jenkins instance in AWS ECS? And people start using it. Awesome! Hold on a sec though, loads of people are using it. So many that Jenkins is grinding to a halt with all the running jobs. Thankfully, we can offload those jobs to run in a completely separate container called a […]
Anatomy of a Gradle build script: the key to understanding Gradle
Did you every look at a Gradle build script and end up scratching your head? Even the simple ones can be tricky to understand if you don’t know the basic building blocks of the build.gradle file, the Gradle build script. To better understand Gradle, it’s helpful to know that the build script normally consists of […]
Annotation processors in Gradle with the annotationProcessor dependency configuration
Annotation processing is a Java compilation option which has been around since Java 5. It enables the generation of additional files during compilation, such as classes or documentation. Gradle abstracts the complexity of passing the correct compilation options to Java with the annotationProcessor dependency configuration, which we’ll explore in detail in this article with a […]
How to update Gradle
Using the Gradle wrapper means that a project can be fixed to a specific version of Gradle. If you want to update Gradle to a newer version though, follow the simple steps in this article. What’s my current Gradle version? Assuming your project is using the Gradle wrapper, which it most likely is, run ./gradlew […]
Gradle implementation vs. compile dependencies
Gradle version 6 supports both the implementation and compile dependency configurations. Why are they both there and which one should you use? Let’s find out with the two simple rules described in this article. Quick answer: use the implementation configuration and never compile, BUT read on for some important caveats Ways to declare dependencies When […]
Gradle project properties best practices
Gradle project properties provide an easy way to customise builds which may need to run slightly differently each time. In this article you’ll learn the most effective ways to use and set properties, along with some common scenarios you might come across in your Gradle project. Why do we need project properties in a Gradle […]
Unleashing the Spring Boot Gradle plugin
1. Introduction Spring Boot is a framework to build Java applications with minimal boilerplate code required, whereas Gradle is a highly configurable build automation tool. Using Gradle to build your Spring Boot application is a good approach, but the process is made infinitely easier using the Spring Boot Gradle plugin to provide build functionality specific […]
Deploying a Spring Boot application into AWS with Jenkins (part 3 of microservice devops series)
Welcome to the third and final part of this three part series where we’re taking a Spring Boot application from inception to deployment, using Docker and all the current best practices for continuous integration with Jenkins. In this final article, we’ll take the Docker image we pushed to Docker Hub in Part 2 and deploy […]