November 2020

Welcome to the November 2020 Gradle Build Tool newsletter.

This issue covers blog posts from the community and from the Gradle team as well as a heads-up about the upcoming Gradle release.

From the Community

• Dependency Management in Gradle - explains the basics of dependency management in Gradle
• Understanding, Profiling, and Optimizing Gradle In Android Builds - discusses various aspects of Gradle builds in the context of Android, including profiling and optimizing performance
• Android App Performance: Gradle and YAML - describes how to ensure small Android app size with Gradle
• Gradle Kotlin DSL: The New Standard - recommends Gradle Kotlin DSL for build authoring
• Gradle Plugin Management - demonstrates how to use plugin management block to succinctly apply private plugins (see also our sample on publishing convention plugins how to streamline this even more)
• Debugging with Gradle - explains how to debug tests run with Gradle and Gradle build scripts
• Checking in the Gradle Wrapper or Not? - discusses the issue of checking in Gradle Wrapper to version control systems
• Benchmarking Gradle Builds Using Gradle-Profiler - describes how to use the Gradle Profiler tool to automate build benchmarking
• Automated, On-demand Benchmarking of Android Gradle Builds with Github Actions - describes how to use Gradle Profiler with GitHub Actions
• Customizing the Gradle Run Task - describes how to customize the JavaExec task

From the Gradle Team

Blog Posts

• Introducing Java Toolchains - describes this new Gradle feature including the motivation behind it, its benefits, and future plans.
• Exploring the Developer Productivity Solution Landscape - describes the merits of two primary approaches to improving developer productivity

On-Demand Webcasts

• Perspectives from a Gradle Solutions Engineer - discusses the most common build issues causing slow Gradle builds based on experience with many builds of a Gradle Solutions engineer
• Android Builds and Tests at Scale: The Panel Discussion - shares the experience of some of the most knowledgeable and experienced. Android experts in scaling up Android builds to many many modules.
• Scaling Android Builds in Pandemic Times - shares how Tinder uses build caching to optimize the build speed.

Upcoming Releases

Gradle 6.8 is currently in the release candidate stage. It will include a much faster Kotlin DSL compilation and other performance optimizations, improvements to Java toolchain support including vendor selection, convenient execution of tasks in composite builds, new APIs for consistent dependency resolution, and other improvements.

Careers

If you are interested in developer productivity and tooling, check out our job openings at gradle.com/careers.

Upcoming Events

• Dec 17 9:00 am PT (3.5 hours): Training: Gradle Build Cache Deep Dive
• Jan 12 9:00 am PT (2.5 hours): Hands-On Workshop: Introduction to Developer Productivity Engineering
• Jan 21 9:00 am PT (3.5 hours): Training: Maven Build Cache Deep Dive
• Jan 25-26 8:30 am PT (4 hours each day): Training: Introduction to Gradle

See the Gradle Training webpage for an up-to-date list of all upcoming educational and training events.

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If you have some news you’d like us to share in the next issue, use #gradle on Twitter or send us an email with the details to newsletter@gradle.com.

Until next time!

—The Gradle Team