Gradle Kotlin DSL

Gradle build scripts can now be written using a dsl with Kotlin Language. All the concepts that work with traditional gradle build translate to a very intuitive dsl in Kotlin and have two additional features - it is typesafe and the script has excellent IDE support using Intellij IDEA.

My experience with the Gralde Kotlin DSL is fairly limited - all of one build script which is the subject of this article.

If you want to simply see how a sample script looks, I have a sample github repo with just that here - https://github.com/bijukunjummen/cf-show-env


Just to compare:

1. Consider the way different plugins are applied with gradle:

plugins {
 id "com.github.pivotalservices.cf-app" version "1.0.9"
}

apply plugin: 'kotlin"
apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot'
apply from: 'gradle/gatling.gradle'

An equivalent kotlin dsl is the following:

plugins {
    id("com.github.pivotalservices.cf-app").version("1.0.9")
}

apply {
    plugin("kotlin")
    plugin("java")
    plugin("org.springframework.boot")    
    from("gradle/gatling.gradle")
}

2. Adding project dependencies:

dependencies {
    compile('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator')
    compile('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-devtools')
    compile('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf')
    compile('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web')
    compile('com.google.guava:guava:19.0')
    compile("org.webjars:bootstrap:3.3.7")
    compile("org.webjars:jquery:3.1.1")
    compile("io.prometheus:simpleclient:${prometheus_client_version}")
    compile("io.prometheus:simpleclient_spring_boot:${prometheus_client_version}")
    compile('nz.net.ultraq.thymeleaf:thymeleaf-layout-dialect')
    testCompile('org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test')
}

an equivalent code using kotlin DSL:

dependencies {
    val prometheus_client_version = "0.0.21"

    compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator")
    compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-devtools")
    compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf")
    compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web")
    compile("com.google.guava:guava:19.0")
    compile("org.webjars:bootstrap:3.3.7")
    compile("org.webjars:jquery:3.1.1")
    compile("io.prometheus:simpleclient:${prometheus_client_version}")
    compile("io.prometheus:simpleclient_spring_boot:${prometheus_client_version}")
    compile("nz.net.ultraq.thymeleaf:thymeleaf-layout-dialect")
    testCompile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test")
}

3. Configuring Plugins - I have a plugin which helps deploy applications to Cloud Foundry, and works off a configuration which looks like this, when expressed using normal gradle build:

cfConfig {
    //CF Details
    ccHost = "api.local.pcfdev.io"
    ccUser = "admin"
    ccPassword = "admin"
    org = "pcfdev-org"
    space = "pcfdev-space"

    //App Details
    name = "cf-show-env"
    hostName = "cf-show-env"
    filePath = "build/libs/cf-show-env-0.1.3-SNAPSHOT.jar"
    path = ""
    domain = "local.pcfdev.io"
    instances = 2
    memory = 1024
    timeout = 180

    //Env and services
    buildpack = "https://github.com/cloudfoundry/java-buildpack.git"


    environment = ["JAVA_OPTS": "-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom", "SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE": "cloud"]

    cfService {
        name = "p-mysql"
        plan = "512mb"
        instanceName = "test-db"
    }



    cfUserProvidedService {
        instanceName = "mydb1"
        credentials = ["jdbcUri": "someuri1"]
    }
}

this can now be configured in a typesafe way with full auto-completion support in IntelliJ the following way using Kotlin DSL:

configure< CfPluginExtension> {
    //CF Details
    ccHost = "api.local.pcfdev.io"
    ccUser = "admin"
    ccPassword = "admin"
    org = "pcfdev-org"
    space = "pcfdev-space"

    //App Details
    name = "cf-show-env"
    hostName = "cf-show-env"
    filePath = "build/libs/cf-show-env-1.0.0-M1.jar"
    path = ""
    domain = "local.pcfdev.io"
    instances = 2
    memory = 1024
    timeout = 180

    //Env and services
    buildpack = "https://github.com/cloudfoundry/java-buildpack.git"

    environment = mapOf(
"JAVA_OPTS" to "-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom", 
"SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE" to "cloud"
    )

    cfService(closureOf<CfService> {
        name = "p-mysql"
        plan = "512mb"
        instanceName = "test-db"
    })

    cfUserProvidedService(closureOf<CfUserProvidedService> { 
        instanceName = "myups"
        credentials = mapOf(
"user" to "someuser",
"uri" to "someuri"
        )
    })

}

4. And finally a straight task:

task "hello-world" {
    doLast {
        println("Hello World")
    }
}

task showAppUrls(dependsOn: "cf-get-app-detail") << {
    print "${project.cfConfig.applicationDetail}"
}

looks more or less the same in Kotlin DSL:

task("hello-world") {
    doLast {
        println("Hello World")
    }
}


task("showAppUrls").dependsOn("cf-get-app-detail").doLast {
       println(cfConfig);
}

I am excited about using Kotlin DSL to configure my gradle builds, there are a few quirks to keep in mind though - the Intellij support tends to be a little flaky, it took a few tries for the IDEA to start helping with the auto-completions, also I needed to google quite a bit and look at some of the sample projects in gradle kotlin dsl, all in all though this has an awesome potential.