Create your custom Gradle plugin - Droidcon 2014

Code sample: https://github.com/nhachicha/sample_gradle_plugin

Gradle is becoming more & more adopted by developers as their main build system especially after the release of Android Studio.
Thanks to the plugins architecture, Gradle allows users to reuse patterns and practices, avoiding boilerplate build code.

In this session, we will focus on creating a Plugin that cooperate with the existing "android plugin", in order to demonstrate some key concepts like: Tasks, Lifecycle, defining a custom DSL, incremental build and testing ...

we conclude by giving an overview of some useful Plugins that will boost your CI process.

Transcript

1. Create your Gradle plugin Nabil Hachicha Droidcon - 2014
2. About Me Works at The App Business London Open Source contributor snappydb.com @nhachicha @nabil_hachicha
3. Motivation What is a Gradle Plugin?
4. Motivation • A reusable fragment of build logic
 • Define the How (Tasks) & the What (DSL)
5. Motivation What are the benefits?
6. Motivation • Keeping the build simple & concise
 • Reduce boilerplate build code (no copy/paste)
 • Separation of concern How (Tasks) vs the What (configuration)
7. Use case study A plugin that generates a properties file
8. Gradle Tasks Demo
9. Writing a lifecycle hook
10. Writing a lifecycle hook dependsOn displayRevision
11. Writing a lifecycle hook Demo
13. Extra properties • User-defined variables • Ex: use it to disable or enable the plugin for a specific flavour
14. Custom Task • Structure your code into classes & methods
 • Maintainability (any method is fully testable)
 • Reusability
15. DSL • Task add new functionality (ability To Do Things - they are unit of works)
 • Extension add new build language elements To Talk about Things
16. Incremental Build • Input haven't changed & Output is still there = Skip redundant work.
 
 but…
 • You need to tell gradle what's the Input & Output
18. Thanks! Q/A
19. @nhachicha @nabil_hachicha The App Business is hiring! theappbusiness.com/careers/