With Gradle we can execute Java applications using the JavaExec task or the javaexec() method. If we want to run Java code from an external dependency we must first pull in the dependency with the Java application code. The best way to do this is to create a new dependency configuration. When we configure a task with type JavaExec we can set the classpath to the external dependency. Notice we cannot use the buildscript{} script block to set the classpath. A JavaExec task will fork a new Java process so any classpath settings via buildscript{} are ignored.

In the following example build script we want to execute the Java class org.apache.cxf.tools.wsdlto.WSDLToJava from Apache CXF to generate Java classes from a given WSDL. We define a new dependency configuration with the name cxf and use it to assign the CXF dependencies to it. We use the classpath property of the JavaExec task to assign the configuration dependency.

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We can introduce Groovy into our Java projects at grassroots level. Even if we aren't allowed to run the Groovy compiler we can use other ways to run Groovy code. As long as we can include the Groovy libraries as a compile dependency than we can already use Groovy from Java. In this post we see how we can use the power of XmlSlurper to parse XML from our Java code.

To execute a Groovy script from we can use a GroovyShell object and invoke the evaluate() method. The evaluate() method can parse a Groovy script as File or Reader object. We can also use a String value to be evaluated. The last statement of the script that is evaluated can be assigned to a Java variable. To pass variables to the script we use the Binding object. This is a map of variables and their values. We assign values to the variables in the Java code and in the Groovy script we can use the variable values.

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Since Groovy 1.8.7 we can create a list and use the withDefault() method to define a default value for elements that are not yet in the list. We use a closure as argument of the method, which returns the default value. We can even access the index of the element in the closure as an argument.

Besides the withDefault() method we can use the withLazyDefault() which is just another name for the same functionality. If we request a value for an index that is greater or equal to the size of the list, the list will automatically grow up to the specified index. Any gaps are filled with the value null.

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Since Groovy 1.8.7 we can use the first() and last() methods on Iterable objects. With the first() method we get the first element and with the last() method we get the last element:

def list = 0..100

assert list.first() == 0
assert list.last() == 100

def abc = 'abc' as Character[]

assert abc.first() == 'a'
assert abc.last() == 'c'

def s = ['Groovy', 'Gradle', 'Grails', 'Rocks'] as Set

assert s.first() == 'Groovy'
assert s.last() == 'Rocks'

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Git supports hooks, which are scripts that are fired when certain events happens. The scripts are simply shell scripts and we can use Groovy to run those scripts. We must make Groovy the script language with the hash-bang (#!) header in the Git hook script file. And then we are ready to go and use Groovy as the script language for the Git hooks.

Git hooks are placed in the .git/hooks directory of our project. We create an example script that will use growlnotify to create a notification message with information from the Git commit action. growlnotify is a command-line tool for Mac OSX to send out messages to Growl. Other operating systems also have tools to create notification message from the command-line.

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We can use the Gradle announce plugin to send announcements from the build process. We can send data to Twitter (I don't know if our followers are waiting for this, but if you want to you can), but also to notification applications on our local computers. For Mac OSX Growl is supported, for Linux notify-send and for Windows Snarl.

The plugin adds an announce object with the announce() method. The method accepts two arguments. The first argument is the message and the second argument is either twitter or local to indicate where to send the announcement.

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Groovy closures are powerful. A closure can be passed to methods as argument or defined as a variable. We can even return closures from methods or other closures. We can use the returned closure to execute the logic from the closure with the explicit call() method or the implicit syntax with just the closure object followed by opening and closing parentheses (()).

// Method returns a closure. Method could
// also have been another closure to return
// the closure.
def repeater(times) {
    { value -> value * times }
}

// Use explicit call() method on the return closure
// object from the repeater() method.
assert repeater(2).call('mrhaki') == 'mrhakimrhaki'

// Use implicit call() method on the return closure
// object from the repeater() method. This
// might looks strange at first...
assert repeater(2)('mrhaki') == 'mrhakimrhaki'

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Since Groovy 2 we can use a subset of the Project Coin features from Java 7. But we don't have to run Java 7 to use them in Groovy code. We can use the new features even if we run our Groovy code on older Java versions.

Groovy didn't have to add all Project Coin features, because some are already supported in Groovy, like the switch statement on String objects or diamond operator. A feature that is added is a syntax enhancement to define binary literals. We can now use binary integral literals by prefixing the value with 0b:

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In Groovy we can use the drop() and take() methods to get elements from a collection or String object. Since Groovy 1.8.7 we also can use the dropWhile() and takeWhile() methods and use a closure to define a condition to stop dropping or taking elements. With the dropWhile() method we drop elements or characters until the condition in the closure is true. And the takeWhile() method returns elements from a collection or characters from a String until the condition of the closure is true. In the following example we see how we can use the methods:

def s = "Groovy Rocks!"

assert s.takeWhile { it != 'R' } == 'Groovy '
assert s.dropWhile { it != 'R' } == 'Rocks!'

def list = 0..10

assert 0..4 == list.takeWhile { it < 5 }
assert 5..10 == list.dropWhile { it < 5 }

def m = [name: 'mrhaki', loves: 'Groovy', worksAt: 'JDriven']

assert [name: 'mrhaki'] == m.takeWhile { key, value -> key.length() == 4 }
assert [loves: 'Groovy', worksAt: 'JDriven'] == m.dropWhile { it.key == 'name' }

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In Groovy we can invoke an implicit call() method on a Groovy object. We can leave out the call method name and just use (). We can use meta programming to add an implementation for the call() method to a class. In the following example script we add an implementation for the call() method with a single parameter to the String class. The implementation returns the element found at the range specified by the argument when we invoke the method:

String.metaClass.call = { range ->
    delegate[range]
}

def value = 'Groovy is Gr8'
assert value(0) == 'G'
assert value(10) == 'G'
assert value(4) == value[4]
assert value.call(1) == value(1)
assert value(0..5) == 'Groovy'

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Since Groovy 1.8.3 we can use the implies() method on Boolean types. The implies() method implements a logical implication. This means that if we have two Boolean variables A and B, that if A is true, than B is true. So if A is true than it is implied B is true as well. If A is false than B can be either true or false. We could rewrite the implication as !A or B.

def a = true
def b = true

assert a.implies(b)
assert !(a.implies(false))

assert a.implies(b) == ((!a).or(b))

assert true.implies(true)
assert false.implies(true)
assert false.implies(false)
assert !true.implies(false)

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With the Gradle IDEA plugin we can generate JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA project files. The plugin uses defaults from our project to generate the files. If we also apply the Java plugin to our project then the Java settings for the project files are generated. We can customize the file generation in several ways. The most low level method is using the withXml hook. With this hook we have access to the XML before the file is written to disk. Here we can add or change XML elements and attribute values. We use a closure as argument for the withXml hook and Gradle adds a XmlProvider object as argument. The easiest way to manipulate the XML is getting a groovy.util.Node from the XmlProvider. We also can get a DOM Element or StringBuilder to work with. In the following example build file we change the contents of the IDEA project file (with extension .ipr). We change the output directory of the JavaDoc tool. We use Groovy syntax to find the JavadocGenerationManager which is automatically added, because we have the Java plugin in our build file. We also change the Encoding component or create it when it doesn't exist:

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'idea'

idea {
    project {
        // Here we customize the .ipr file generation.
        ipr {
            // XML hook to customize the XML before
            // it is written to disk
            withXml { xmlProvider ->
                // Get root node.
                def project = xmlProvider.asNode()

                customizeJavaDoc project
                customizeEncoding project
            }
        }
    }
}

/* Customize JavadocGenerationManger component */
def customizeJavaDoc(project) {
    def javaDocGenerationManager = findComponent(project, 'JavadocGenerationManager')
    changeOption javaDocGenerationManager, 'OUTPUT_DIRECTORY', '$PROJECT_DIR$/out/javadoc'
}

/* Search component with given name */
def findComponent(project, name) {
    project.component.find { it.@name == name }
}

/* Set value for option node with given name */
def changeOption(node, name, value) {
    node.option.find { it.@name == name }.@value = value
}

/* Customize Encoding component */
def customizeEncoding(project) {
    def encoding = findComponent(project, 'Encoding')

    if (encoding) {
        // Change existing node.
        encoding.@useUTFGuessing = true
        encoding.@native2AsciiForPropertiesFiles = true
        encoding.@defaultCharsetForPropertiesFiles = 'UTF-8'
    } else {
        // Create new node with default values.
        project.appendNode 'Encoding', [useUTFGuessing: true, native2AsciiForPropertiesFiles: true, defaultCharsetForPropertiesFiles: 'UTF-8']
    }
}

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