DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
  1. DZone
  2. Coding
  3. Languages
  4. Gradle Goodness: Running Groovy Scripts as Application

Gradle Goodness: Running Groovy Scripts as Application

Hubert Klein Ikkink user avatar by
Hubert Klein Ikkink
·
Sep. 30, 14 · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
Share
8.84K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

In a previous post we learned how to run a Java application in a Gradle project. The Java source file with a main method is part of the project and we use the JavaExec task to run the Java code. We can use the same JavaExec task to run a Groovy script file.

A Groovy script file doesn't have an explicit main method, but it is added when we compile the script file. The name of the script file is also the name of the generated class, so we use that name for the main property of the JavaExec task. Let's first create simple Groovy script file to display the current date. We can pass an extra argument with the date format we wan't to use.

// File: src/main/groovy/com/mrhaki/CurrentDate.groovy
package com.mrhaki

// If an argument is passed we assume it is the
// date format we want to use.
// Default format is dd-MM-yyyy.
final String dateFormat = args ? args[0] : 'dd-MM-yyyy'

// Output formatted current date and time.
println "Current date and time: ${new Date().format(dateFormat)}"

Our Gradle build file contains the task runScript of type JavaExec. We rely on the Groovy libraries included with Gradle, because we use localGroovy() as a compile dependency. Of course we can change this to refer to another Groovy version if we want to using the group, name and version notation together with a valid repository.

// File: build.gradle
apply plugin: 'groovy'

dependencies {
    compile localGroovy()
}

task runScript(type: JavaExec) {
    description 'Run Groovy script'

    // Set main property to name of Groovy script class.
    main = 'com.mrhaki.CurrentDate'

    // Set classpath for running the Groovy script.
    classpath = sourceSets.main.runtimeClasspath

    if (project.hasProperty('custom')) {
        // Pass command-line argument to script.
        args project.getProperty('custom')
    }
}

defaultTasks 'runScript'

We can run the script with or without the project property custom and we see the changes in the output:

$ gradle -q
Current date and time: 29-09-2014
$ gradle -q -Pcustom=yyyyMMdd
Current date and time: 20140929
$ gradle -q -Pcustom=yyyy
Current date and time: 2014

Code written with Gradle 2.1.

Groovy (programming language) Gradle application

Published at DZone with permission of Hubert Klein Ikkink, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • How To Check Docker Images for Vulnerabilities
  • API Design Patterns Review
  • How Observability Is Redefining Developer Roles
  • What Is a Kubernetes CI/CD Pipeline?

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: