gradle • groovy • spock

Gradle tooling API: hello world

What is tooling API?

Gradle tooling API allows you to interact with Gradle directly. You can use it to run your tasks, to test output and other results.

Basic example

In this article I would like to present the simplest example of usage Gradle tooling API - displaying available tasks. Let’s assume we have the following build file:

apply plugin: 'groovy'
apply plugin: 'idea'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    maven { url 'http://repo.gradle.org/gradle/libs-releases-local' }
}

dependencies {
    testCompile 'org.spockframework:spock-core:0.7-groovy-2.0'
    testCompile 'org.gradle:gradle-tooling-api:2.0-rc-1'
}

To display available tasks and to check if everything works fine, I created unit test with the help of Spock in src/test/groovy directory:

import org.gradle.tooling.GradleConnector
import spock.lang.Specification

class SimpleTest extends Specification{

    def path = new File('C:/Users/pawel.oczadly/gradle-tooling-api-hello-world')

    def 'should display all tasks'() {
        given:
        def conn = GradleConnector.newConnector().forProjectDirectory(path).connect()

        when:
        conn.newBuild().forTasks('tasks').run()

        then:
        conn.close()
    }
}

After running gradle test Gradle displayed all available tasks:

    08:32:18.858 [Connection worker] DEBUG o.g.t.i.provider.DefaultConnection - Tooling API provider 2.0-rc-1 created.
    08:32:19.106 [Connection worker] DEBUG o.g.t.i.provider.ProviderConnection - Configuring logging to level: INFO
    Tooling API is using target Gradle version: 2.0-rc-1.
    Starting Gradle daemon
    Starting daemon process: workingDir = C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\daemon\2.0-rc-1, daemonArgs: [C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_05\bin\java.exe, -XX:MaxPermSize=256m, -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, -Xmx1024m, -Dfile.encoding=windows-1250, -cp, C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\wrapper\dists\gradle-2.0-rc-1-bin\4rau6kski4dn6gj70iqn8pqs3c\gradle-2.0-rc-1\lib\gradle-launcher-2.0-rc-1.jar, org.gradle.launcher.daemon.bootstrap.GradleDaemon, 2.0-rc-1, C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\daemon, 10800000, 7793f289-f768-4f88-91a8-770a9f58c56b, -XX:MaxPermSize=256m, -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError, -Xmx1024m, -Dfile.encoding=windows-1250]
    Starting process 'Gradle build daemon'. Working directory: C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\daemon\2.0-rc-1 Command: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_05\bin\java.exe -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Xmx1024m -Dfile.encoding=windows-1250 -cp C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\wrapper\dists\gradle-2.0-rc-1-bin\4rau6kski4dn6gj70iqn8pqs3c\gradle-2.0-rc-1\lib\gradle-launcher-2.0-rc-1.jar org.gradle.launcher.daemon.bootstrap.GradleDaemon 2.0-rc-1 C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\.gradle\daemon 10800000 7793f289-f768-4f88-91a8-770a9f58c56b -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Xmx1024m -Dfile.encoding=windows-1250
    Successfully started process 'Gradle build daemon'
    An attempt to start the daemon took 1.792 secs.
    Connected to the daemon. Dispatching Build{id=e2257a8d-ac83-45b5-a53b-1a12fc6adf29.1, currentDir=C:\Users\pawel.oczadly\gradle-tooling-api-hello-world} request.
    :tasks

    ------------------------------------------------------------
    All tasks runnable from root project
    ------------------------------------------------------------

    Build tasks
    -----------
    assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
    build - Assembles and tests this project.
    buildDependents - Assembles and tests this project and all projects that depend on it.
    buildNeeded - Assembles and tests this project and all projects it depends on.
    classes - Assembles classes 'main'.
    clean - Deletes the build directory.
    jar - Assembles a jar archive containing the main classes.
    testClasses - Assembles classes 'test'.

    Build Setup tasks
    -----------------
    init - Initializes a new Gradle build. [incubating]
    wrapper - Generates Gradle wrapper files. [incubating]

    Documentation tasks
    -------------------
    groovydoc - Generates Groovydoc API documentation for the main source code.
    javadoc - Generates Javadoc API documentation for the main source code.

    Help tasks
    ----------
    dependencies - Displays all dependencies declared in root project 'gradle-tooling-api-hello-world'.
    dependencyInsight - Displays the insight into a specific dependency in root project 'gradle-tooling-api-hello-world'.
    help - Displays a help message
    projects - Displays the sub-projects of root project 'gradle-tooling-api-hello-world'.
    properties - Displays the properties of root project 'gradle-tooling-api-hello-world'.
    tasks - Displays the tasks runnable from root project 'gradle-tooling-api-hello-world'.

    IDE tasks
    ---------
    cleanIdea - Cleans IDEA project files (IML, IPR)
    idea - Generates IDEA project files (IML, IPR, IWS)

    Verification tasks
    ------------------
    check - Runs all checks.
    test - Runs the unit tests.

    Other tasks
    -----------
    cleanIdeaWorkspace

    Rules
    -----
    Pattern: clean<TaskName>: Cleans the output files of a task.
    Pattern: build<ConfigurationName>: Assembles the artifacts of a configuration.
    Pattern: upload<ConfigurationName>: Assembles and uploads the artifacts belonging to a configuration.

    To see all tasks and more detail, run with --all.

    BUILD SUCCESSFUL

    Total time: 6.679 secs