Reconciling Java and DevOps With JeKa

If you've ever implemented a Java project using a mainstream build system such as Ant, Maven, or Gradle, you've probably noticed that you need to use extra language to describe how to build your project.

While this may seem appealing for basic tasks, it can become trickier for more complicated ones. You need to learn a specific soup of XML, write verbose configurations, or write Kotlin DSLs that are intertwined with complex tooling. 

If you've gone further by writing pipelines for deploying and managing releases, you've probably had to write shell or Groovy scripts to be used in your CI/CD tools. While this may be okay for simple tasks, it can become cumbersome when dealing with complexity. You'd prefer to use all your knowledge and tooling when producing regular code, such as modeling, refactoring, and run/debug in IDEs.

This is where JeKa comes in. JeKa is a very thin tool that allows you to execute arbitrary Java source code from the command line or within your IDE. While this may not seem like a big deal at first glance, this capability enables you to:

• Write any arbitrary script using plain Java code, run and debug it in an IDE, and invoke arbitrary public methods so you can host many scripts in a single class.
• Invoke this code from the command line or any CI/CD tool without needing to compile it. JeKa handles the compilation for you.
• Simply use any library available in the Java ecosystem in your scripts. Just declare dependencies in annotations, and JeKa will resolve them behind the scenes.

With this capability, you can get rid of cryptic shell scripts and implement powerful and portable scripts without needing additional knowledge.

The second stage of JeKa is the utilities it embeds. When writing scripts, you can use any libraries, but JeKa also bundles some utilities that are frequently needed when implementing automation tasks, such as dealing with file sets and zip files, Git, launching OS processes synchronously and retrieving results, Java compilation/testing, Maven dependency/repo management, full JVM project build models, and XML handling.

These utilities can help you implement CI/CD pipelines or even build/test entire Java projects.

The last stage consists of a plugin and parameterization mechanism that allows JeKa to be a first-class citizen in the build tool space. Each plugin provides methods and configurations to integrate external technology with a minimum of effort or no typing. Currently, there are plugins for JVM projects, Node.js, Spring Boot, SonarQube, JaCoCo, Kotlin, Protocol Buffers, and Nexus repositories.

With all these capabilities, JeKa lets you implement an entire Java project with automated delivery using a single language for everything. This language can be Java, or it can be Kotlin, as JeKa provides the same capabilities for both.

Additionally, an IntelliJ plugin exists to improve the user experience with JeKa.

For a better understanding, check out this GitHub repository that demonstrates numerous projects built with Jeka. Through this, you'll gain insights into how Jeka can be utilized to build projects with popular technologies like Spring Boot, Kotlin, Node.js, SonarQube, and JaCoCo.

Jeka also provides detailed documentation describing exactly how it works. You won't be left to your own devices using it. 

What do you think about this initiative? Do you think JeKa can ease the full development-delivery cycle?