any way to write more concise gradle? - gradle

Question

I do not know groovy well enough yet and just trying to get by right now. I have the following gradle working right now but am wondering if there is a more concise way to write it:
task staging(type: Sync) {
from(stagingDir) {}
into toStagingDir
}
task syncJars(type: Sync) {
from(configurations.compile) {}
from(fixedLibDir) {}
into toStagingLibsDir
}
task copyMainJar(type: Copy) {
from(libsDir) {}
into toStagingLibsDir
}
task myZip(type: Zip) {
archiveName "bacnet.zip"
from(buildDir) {
include project.name+'/**'
}
}
syncJars.dependsOn('staging')
copyMainJar.dependsOn('syncJars')
myZip.dependsOn('copyMainJar')
assemble.dependsOn('myZip')
Perhaps there is someway to write it like this:
task prepareStaging {
staging from stagingDir into toStagingDir
syncJars from configurations.compile from fixedLibDir into toStagingLibsDir
copyMainJar from libsDir into toStagingLibsDir
myZip archiveName "bacnet.zip" from buildDir { include project.name+'/**' }
}
assemble.dependsOn('prepareStaging')
Ideally, I LOVE self-documenting code. In this second example, it is obvious to the next developer I mean each of those small tasks to NOT be re-usable. This is very clear(ie. self-documenting). In the first way I wrote the code that is definitely not clear as those tasks could be re-used from other project files.
Any way to write it in that simpler form?
NOTE: I still want all the UP-TO-DATE checks to happen as well as usual though!!!

Answer 1

If I understood correctly, and toStagingDir and toStagingLibDir are just temporary directories that are created under the buildDir directory (in myZip task), then below should do an equivalent job to yours:
task myZip(type: Zip){
archiveName "bacnet.zip"
into('staging'){
from stagingDir
}
into('staging/libs'){
from fixedLibDir
from configurations.compile
from libsDir
//or this, if you just want to include current projects jars
from jar.outputs.files
}
}
The idea here is not to create a temporary directory yourself, but let gradle do it for you.
As long as you dont call cleanMyZip it will do UP-TO-DATE checks and do the bare minimum. Last time I checked Zip behaved much like Sync, in that it would remove any files from the zip that are no longer present in the source. This may behave slightly differently to copyMainJar task, because it's of type Copy which means if you ever delete a file from libsDir then in my case it would disappear from the zip, but in your code it will not.
Don't know if this is even close to what you're asking, but hope it's at least of a little use:)
Elaboration:
Tasks in gradle are always public by design AFAIK. There is an enhancement request but without much action around it. You can use standard groovy methods, which support private visibility, but they aren't as powerful as tasks. Although, you'll find that tasks can depend on groovy functions and more (or anything with call() method), so you can do stuff like:
def function = {
println "function here!"
}
task myTask(dependsOn: function) << {
println "myTask here!"
}
will generate:
function here!
:a:myTask
myTask here!
This should give you some flexibility, but if you really really really need an private task you can do some dirty hacking (I know Gradle guys will hate me for this xx;) ... here it is:
//Create a factory for creating tasks
import org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.ITaskFactory
def taskFactory = project.services.get(ITaskFactory)
//You can use the factory to create tasks without adding them to
//project.tasks, which will make them invisible to most irrelevant
//parts of your code, and they will not come up in `gradle tasks` list:
//Equivalent of:
// task myTask << {
// println "i'm invisible"
// }
def privateTask = taskFactory.createTask([name: 'myTask']).doLast {
println "i'm invisible"
}
//Equivalent of:
// task myCopyTask(type: Copy){
// from configurations.compile
// into 'libs'
// }
def privateCopyTask = taskFactory.createTask([name: 'myCopyTask', type: Copy])
.configure {
from configurations.compile
into 'lib-test'
}
//You can depend on the above tasks as usual from your public tasks:
task publicTask(dependsOn: [privateTask, privateCopyTask]) << {
println "I'm public task"
}
Note: Seems to work in Gradle 1.2, but use at your own risk!
Good luck!