Utilize ant in settings.gradle during configuration phase - gradle

Question

I want to apply a shared gradle file to my projects settings.gradle. The shared file is located in a jar which must be downloaded and extracted during the configuration phase. This is because is applies a plugin which must be applied in the configuration phase. I found this related question: How to share a common build.gradle via a repository? My preferred way is described in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39228611/987860
However, this appears to be working in build.gradle only. I tried to move the buildscript block to my settings.gradle.
settings.gradle
buildscript {
ext {
dependencyVersion = '0.1.2'
}
repositories {
maven {
credentials {
username 'user'
password 'password'
}
url 'https://my-private-maven-repo.com'
}
}
dependencies {
classpath "my.group:myartifact:$dependencyVersion"
}
dependencies {
def gradleScripts = new File(rootDir, '/build/gradle')
delete gradleScripts
def jars = configurations.classpath.files as List<File>
ant.unjar(src: jars.find { it.name.matches '.*myartifact.*' }, dest: gradleScripts) {
patternset {
include(name:'*.gradle')
}
}
}
}
apply from: new File(rootDir, '/build/gradle/myscript.gradle')
But this results in the following exception:
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* Where:
Settings file 'settings.gradle' line: 24
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating settings 'journal'.
> Could not get unknown property 'ant' for object of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler.
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
BUILD FAILED
Total time: 0.019 secs
Could not get unknown property 'ant' for object of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler.
Is there any way to utilize ant int the confiuration phase before my settings.gradle is evaluated? I need to have the dependency downloaded and extractet before the to-be-downloaded file gets applied.

Answer 1

This is a really unusual way to do things. I'd really recommend not doing what you're trying to do because it'll make your build much slower than it should be. You're deleting build/gradle and extracting the contents of the plugin's jar on every build.
Everything inside a build.gradle (or settings.gradle) can be put into a plugin and distributed that way. You already have a jar that needs to be downloaded, so converting myscript.gradle into a plugin is very easy to roughly convert.
Put this in src/main/groovy/some/package/MyPlugin.groovy in the project that's producing the plugin jar already:
package some.package
import org.gradle.api.*
class MyPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
void apply(Project project) {
project.with {
// contents of script
}
}
}
For plugins applied to settings.gradle:
package some.package
import org.gradle.api.*
class MyPlugin implements Plugin<Settings> {
void apply(Settings settings) {
settings.with {
// contents of script
}
}
}
Then you can just add the dependency to the plugin and use apply plugin: some.package.MyPlugin.
There are a lot of other advantages of developing/distributing plugins in this way. You can find more information on plugin development in the Gradle Guides.
Alternatively, if you absolutely must keep the separate .gradle script. If you can serve it separately (outside of the jar), you can do:
apply from: "http://example.com/some/url/myscript.gradle"
The downside with this is that it'll download the file on every build (this is fixed in Gradle 4.2).