Introduction

Welcome to the November 2019 newsletter.

This issue covers the Gradle 6.0 release, the Gradle Enterprise 2019.4 release, and Analyzing unstable and slow tests using Gradle Enterprise.

New Gradle content

Gradle 6 is a breakthrough release in terms of dependency management. This “Avoiding Dependency Hell” blog post explains how it makes managing dependencies more reliable and maintainable. In addition, the What’s New in Gradle 6.0 webcast and part 3 of the Dependency Management webcast series Publishing and Release Strategies are now available to watch.

This blog post shows you how to identify slow and unstable tests using the new Tests Dashboard feature of Gradle Enterprise 2019.4.

As a reminder, make sure you are ready for the upcoming switch to HTTPS-only for all Gradle Services with this Decommissioning HTTP for Gradle Services blog post which explains if you may be affected and how to prepare.

From the community

• From Gradle Properties to AGP APIs - a talk by Google Engineers Jerome Dochez, Chris Warrington, and Xavier Ducrohet from Android Dev Summit 2019.
• Sharing Gradle Configuration in Multi-Module Android Project - a short tutorial from Sam Edwards published on the Capital One Tech blog.
• Loading Gradle plugins in 2019 - a blog post from Martin Bonnin.
• The one Gradle trick that supersedes all the others - a blog post from Jean-Michel Fayard.

If you have a talk, blog post, or plugin release you’d like us to share in the next issue, use #gradle on Twitter or send us an email with the details to newsletter@gradle.com.

Gradle 6.0.1

🎉🎉 Gradle 6.0.1 is out! 🎉🎉

Gradle 6 is a breakthrough release in terms of dependency management. It is the culmination of several years of innovative improvements including Gradle Module Metadata and sharing dependency versions between projects via platforms.

This Avoiding Dependency Hell blog post explains how Gradle 6 makes managing dependencies more reliable and maintainable. In addition, the What’s New in Gradle 6.0 webcast walks through some of the new features in dependency management, Java/Groovy/Scala toolchains, and plugin authoring.

6.0.1 contains some small fixes raised against 6.0. In particular, Android 3.5.1 and Kotlin DSL users should upgrade as soon as possible.

Gradle Enterprise 2019.4

Gradle Enterprise 2019.4 greatly improves the Gradle Enterprise user experience with major features such as:

• a Tests dashboard for identifying and analyzing the most frequently failing tests
• access control for build scan publication
• more fine-grained work avoidance metrics for individual builds
• expanded Maven build comparison
• and more!

Existing customers can upgrade today to take advantage of these new features, but please note that the Tests Dashboard is available in 2019.4 as a partial preview of a larger set of testing-oriented functionality that will be available as an add-on package in upcoming Gradle Enterprise versions. Depending on your usage license, this new functionality may not be available to your installation when it is no longer in feature preview. If you have questions regarding this matter, please contact Gradle Enterprise support.

Gradle Enterprise plugin users should upgrade to the latest 3.1 version and likewise, Maven Gradle Enterprise Extension users should upgrade to 1.3.

Online Training

If you are looking to level up your Gradle and/or Maven skills, Gradle offers intro and advanced online training. Events are winding down for the end of the year, but you can always check out the available classes at gradle.com/training. Some of the upcoming events include:

• December 11 9:00 am PT (2 hours 30 minutes) Hands-on Workshop: Maximize Developer Productivity with Fast and Reliable Gradle and Maven Builds
• December 12 9:00 am PT (90 minutes) CloudBees/Gradle Joint Webinar: Improve CI Performance by Optimizing Maven and Gradle Builds
• January 15-16 8:30 am PT (4 hours each day) Introduction to Gradle

Sponsored Events

• December 3-5: DevOps World: Lisbon
• December 4-6: Tech Leader Summit Clearwater, Florida
• December 4-6: Kotlin Conf Copenhagen, Denmark
• December 9-12: ArchConf Clearwater, Florida

Conference Talks & Meetups

• November 28: Pourquoi Gradle? (Français/French) - Gradle Engineer Louis Jacomet will present at the Lyon JUG.
• December 2: Developer Productivity Engineering (Deutsch/German) - Gradle Engineer Stefan Wolf will present at the Munich JUG.

Job opportunities

The Gradle Inc. engineering team continues to grow. We’re currently looking for:

• Gradle Enterprise (remote/worldwide) – Solutions Engineer
• Gradle Enterprise (remote/worldwide) – Back-end and Front-end Software Engineers
• Gradle Build Tool (remote/worldwide) – Software Engineer
• Marketing (remote/worldwide) – Developer Advocate

The details of these and other open positions are available at gradle.com/careers.

If you have some news you’d like us to share in the next issue, use #gradle on Twitter or send us an email with the details to newsletter@gradle.com.

Until next time!

—The Gradle Build Tool Team