How to run custom task within gradle build? - gradle

Question

I have a Spring Boot web application which uses Gradle and NPM. I created a package.json file and npm install works fine. But I'd like to be able to run npm install automatically when I run gradle build. Here's my build file:
plugins {
id 'org.springframework.boot' version '1.5.10.RELEASE'
id 'java'
id 'war'
id "org.ysb33r.nodejs.base" version "0.1"
id "org.ysb33r.nodejs.npm" version "0.1"
}
group 'com.Blahblah'
version '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
war {
baseName = 'Blahblah'
version = '0.0.1'
}
sourceCompatibility = 1.8
repositories {
mavenCentral()
jcenter()
maven { url "http://repo.spring.io/libs-snapshot" }
maven { url "https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/" }
}
dependencies {
compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web")
compile group: 'commons-io', name: 'commons-io', version: '2.6'
compile group: 'commons-fileupload', name: 'commons-fileupload', version: '1.3.3'
compile group: 'com.cloudinary', name: 'cloudinary-core', version: '1.17.0'
compile group: 'com.cloudinary', name: 'cloudinary-http44', version: '1.17.0'
compile group: 'mysql', name: 'mysql-connector-java', version: '6.0.6'
compile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-data-jpa', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
compile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-jersey', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
compile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-mail', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
compile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-web', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
compile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-tomcat', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
classpath "gradle.plugin.org.ysb33r.gradle:nodejs-gradle-plugin:0.1"
testCompile group: 'org.springframework.boot', name: 'spring-boot-starter-test', version: '1.5.10.RELEASE'
testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.12'
}
apply plugin: "org.ysb33r.nodejs.base"
apply plugin: "org.ysb33r.nodejs.npm"
I added the ysb33r parts in plugins, dependencies and apply plugin sections, but now I get an error at the line:
classpath "gradle.plugin.org.ysb33r.gradle:nodejs-gradle-plugin:0.1"
It says:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'Blahblah'.
> Could not find method classpath() for arguments [gradle.plugin.org.ysb33r.gradle:nodejs-gradle-plugin:0.1] on object of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler.
Before I added the ysb33r lines, the build worked fine. What could be the problem? And when the problem is solved, how should I proceed in order to run npm install automatically?
Thanks.

Answer 1

A couple of issues:
Exec.commandLine is a String array
Your println is happening in the configuration phase, put it in a doLast block so it executes in the execution phase
Eg:
task npmInstall(type: Exec) {
commandLine 'npm install'.split(' ')
doLast {
println 'DONE!'
}
}
Rather than calling npm via Exec task, you should consider one of the gradle/nodejs plugins. Most of these are able to use an embedded nodejs version, downloaded from a repository, to execute nodejs commands rather than require a nodejs installation on the machine
See: https://plugins.gradle.org/search?term=nodejs
Eg: http://ysb33rorg.gitlab.io/nodejs-gradle-plugin/