Introduction

Welcome to the May 2024 Gradle Build Tool newsletter! Learn about DPE University and the new online courses for Gradle Build Tool, Declarative Gradle updates, the Kotlin 2.0 release, Google Summer of Code projects, and upcoming events.

From the Community

Blog Posts

• Android Security: Securing your Gradle builds from baddies by Ed Holloway-George
• Investigation of Gradle dependency signature verification of Guava by Aurimas Liutikas
• Android Studio Gradle Version Catalogs by İbrahim Ertan Yılmaz
• Using Gradle in Android Application Development: Build Variants, Build Types and Manifest Placeholders by Enes İğneci
• The elephant in the room: How to update Gradle in your Android project correctly by Ed Holloway-George

Videos and Live Demos

• How to stop the ‘Gradle Snatchers’: Securing your builds from baddies by Ed Holloway-George
• Full Guide to Migrating to Gradle Version Catalog by the Coding Meet channel
• Build Propulsion Lab - Gradle Build Tool interviews playlist is now available on our official YouTube channel (Many Gradle community members and users participated in Build Propulsion Lab interviews during this conference season—explore the playlist to discover the sessions relevant to your favorite build tool.)

New Releases

• Kotlin 2.0 release, along with a new Kotlin Compose compiler plugin for Gradle - see details below
• JHipster Lite v1.9.0 introduced official support for Kotlin DSL in Gradle
• Flutter 3.22 also added support for Kotlin DSL in Gradle
• Gradle Doctor v0.10.0 now supports checking executables for Java home directory

Books

• Chapters 1-4 of the book Extending Android Builds by El Zhang are now open to everyone on the web.
• El Zhang also started a new open-source book on Kotlin-oriented Gradle Essentials. Contributions are welcome!

From the Gradle Team

DPE University Launch

Our new learning portal, DPE University, is now live! The initial release includes six free, self-paced courses on Gradle Build Tool designed to support developers and build platform engineers across all experience levels, from beginners to salty-dog maintainers of company-scale developer productivity platforms leveraging Gradle Build Tool or Develocity:

• Introduction to Gradle Build Tool for Developers - Getting started with Gradle Build Tool
• How to Use Gradle Build Scan - Troubleshooting and optimizing Gradle builds with the Build Scan service we offer to Gradle developers
• Incremental Builds and Build Caching with Gradle Build Tool - Using Gradle Build Cache to reduce build times significantly
• Incremental Builds and Build Caching with Gradle and Develocity - An advanced version of the previous course that also includes distributed caching with Develocity
• Gradle Build Cache Deep Dive - Advanced training for those who want to master Gradle Build Tool’s caching capabilities and understand how they work under the hood
• Maintaining Optimal Gradle Build Cache Performance - An additional set of best practices for advanced users operating at scale

The training platform also includes courses on Developer Productivity Engineering and Develocity. We plan to release more Gradle Build Tool training courses in the coming months. Visit the DPE University portal to get started, and subscribe to the Gradle Build Tool Newsletter to receive updates on new courses and learning paths.

Learn more about DPE University for Gradle Build Tool and other stories in the announcement post.

Upcoming Gradle 8.8 Release

We published the first release candidates of the upcoming Gradle Build Tool 8.8 release. This release is expected to include full support for Java 22, support for configuring Gradle daemons via the Java toolchain, improved IDE performance for large projects, a stable version of the File Permissions API, and many build authoring and error handling improvements.

The draft release notes for the upcoming release are here. To discuss any upcoming features, share feedback, or discuss the documentation for the release, use the #releases-discussion channel on the Gradle Community Slack.

Declarative Gradle

Paul Merlin and Sterling Greene presenting on Declarative Gradle at KotlinConf

We’re working towards the first Early Access Preview (EAP) release of Declarative Gradle this summer, as well as documentation and infrastructure, to start gathering community input.

Here are some resources with more details about the project:

• NowInAndroid with Declarative Gradle demo project (highly experimental)
• The new Declarative Gradle site at https://declarative.gradle.org/ (includes overviews, initial getting started guidelines, and documentation)
• Developer-first Gradle Builds presentation by Sterling Greene and Paul Merlin at KotlinConf on May 24 covering project vision and demonstration (video, slides)
• Declarative Gradle and Gradle History interview with Adam Murdoch, CTO at Gradle

Gradle.org Website: New Look

We’ve refreshed the look and feel of the gradle.org website! In addition to the new look, you’ll find a simplified navigation to help direct you to important resources—including documentation, learning materials, and key feature overviews.

Other Publications

See also the following videos and articles from the Gradle team:

• Road to Gradle 9 by Louis Jacomet - Interview at the Build Propulsion Lab, Devoxx FR
• Don’t let ephemeral CI kill your developer productivity! by Louis Jacomet
• Troubleshooting Your Maven and Gradle Builds with Build Scan® by Trisha Gee
• Bootiful Builds — Best Practices for Building Spring Boot Apps with Gradle by Eric Haag
• Quarkus, Gradle, WireMock Dev Services for Gradle Projects by Oleg Nenashev

Kotlin 2.0 Release

Gradle is highlighted among Kotlin 2 EAP Champions at the KotlinConf opening Keynote (photo by Qian)

Kotlin 2.0 has been released! It introduces a new K2 Compiler, a Kotlin Compose compiler plugin for Gradle, a new Gradle DSL for compiler options in multiplatform projects, and many other features. Learn more in this article.

We were one of the teams that participated in the Kotlin 2.0 Early-Access Program. We plan to integrate Kotlin 2.0 into the major release of Gradle Build Tool 9.0 and leverage the K2 compiler to speed up Kotlin DSL compilation.

Welcome the Google Summer of Code contributors!

Google Summer of Code projects have now been announced! This year, we’re doing three projects under the umbrella of the Kotlin Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation, with the Visual Studio Code Java team at Microsoft participating in mentoring. Our projects are:

• Gradle Build Server – Support for Android projects by Tanish Ranjan
• Gradle Build Server - DevX and Language Support in Buildship by Sidhaarth Saraswathi Ramalingam
• Declarative Syntax and Enhancements for the Checkstyle Plugin by Hongjie (Jay) Wei

If you’re interested in those projects, say hello to the contributors on the #gsoc channel on the Gradle Community Slack. All the links are available here.