Gradle

Gradle is the other major build tool in the Java ecosystem. It is newer than Maven, uses code (Kotlin or Groovy) instead of XML for configuration, and is generally faster thanks to incremental builds and a build cache. This chapter shows how to set up the same REST API project with Gradle using the Kotlin DSL (build.gradle.kts).

Maven vs Gradle

Feature	Maven	Gradle
Configuration	XML (pom.xml)	Kotlin/Groovy (build.gradle.kts)
Speed	Good	Faster (incremental builds, daemon, cache)
Flexibility	Convention-based, less customizable	Highly customizable
Learning curve	Lower (XML is declarative)	Moderate (Kotlin DSL is a real language)
Ecosystem	Largest, most enterprise projects	Growing, default for Android/Kotlin
IDE support	Excellent in all IDEs	Excellent in IntelliJ, good in others

Neither is "better" - pick whichever your team or project uses. Both solve the same problems.

Installing Gradle

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install gradle

Windows

Download from gradle.org, extract, and add the bin/ directory to your PATH.

Linux (SDKMAN - recommended)

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
sdk install gradle

Verify

gradle --version

Result:

------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 8.10
------------------------------------------------------------
Build time:    2024-08-14
Kotlin:        1.9.24
Groovy:        3.0.22
JVM:           21.0.2

Creating a Gradle project

Gradle follows the same directory convention as Maven:

task-api-gradle/
├── build.gradle.kts             # Build configuration (Kotlin DSL)
├── settings.gradle.kts          # Project settings
└── src/
    ├── main/
    │   └── java/
    │       └── taskapi/
    │           ├── Task.java
    │           ├── TaskStore.java
    │           ├── TaskHandler.java
    │           └── ApiServer.java
    └── test/
        └── java/
            └── taskapi/

settings.gradle.kts

The settings file names the project:

rootProject.name = "task-api"

build.gradle.kts

The build file replaces Maven's pom.xml:

plugins {
    java
    application
    id("com.gradleup.shadow") version "8.3.5"
}

group = "com.example"
version = "1.0.0"

java {
    toolchain {
        languageVersion = JavaLanguageVersion.of(21)
    }
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    // Jackson for JSON processing
    implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.17.2")
}

application {
    mainClass = "taskapi.ApiServer"
}

tasks.shadowJar {
    archiveClassifier = "all"
}

Compare this to the Maven pom.xml:

• Shorter - Kotlin DSL is more concise than XML
• plugins { java; application } - declares this is a Java application
• repositories { mavenCentral() } - where to download dependencies (same Maven Central)
• dependencies { implementation(...) } - equivalent to Maven's <dependency> block
• application { mainClass = ... } - enables gradle run to start the app
• shadowJar task - the Shadow plugin creates a fat JAR without the common edge cases of manual zipTree packaging

Gradle vs Maven dependency notation

Maven:
  <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
  <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
  <version>2.17.2</version>

Gradle:
  implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.17.2")

The compact group:artifact:version string is much easier to read.

Dependency configurations

Gradle	Maven equivalent	Meaning
implementation	compile	Compile + runtime, not exposed to consumers
api	compile	Compile + runtime, exposed to consumers
testImplementation	test	Test compile + runtime only
compileOnly	provided	Compile only, not in JAR
runtimeOnly	runtime	Runtime only

Improving the REST API with Jackson

In the Maven chapter we used Gson. Here we use Jackson - the other popular JSON library - to show both options. Jackson is the industry default for most Java projects.

Updated TaskHandler.java with Jackson

The source files (Task.java, TaskStore.java, ApiServer.java) are identical to the Maven chapter. Only TaskHandler.java changes to use Jackson instead of Gson:

// src/main/java/taskapi/TaskHandler.java
package taskapi;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpHandler;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.util.List;

public class TaskHandler implements HttpHandler {

    private final TaskStore store;
    private final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

    public TaskHandler(Path dataFile) {
        this.store = new TaskStore(dataFile);
    }

    @Override
    public void handle(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
        String method = exchange.getRequestMethod();
        String path = exchange.getRequestURI().getPath();

        try {
            if (path.equals("/api/tasks")) {
                switch (method) {
                    case "GET" -> handleListTasks(exchange);
                    case "POST" -> handleCreateTask(exchange);
                    default -> sendError(exchange, 405, "Method not allowed");
                }
            } else if (path.startsWith("/api/tasks/")) {
                int id = parseIdFromPath(path);
                switch (method) {
                    case "GET" -> handleGetTask(exchange, id);
                    case "PUT" -> handleUpdateTask(exchange, id);
                    case "DELETE" -> handleDeleteTask(exchange, id);
                    default -> sendError(exchange, 405, "Method not allowed");
                }
            } else if (path.equals("/api/health") && method.equals("GET")) {
                sendJson(exchange, 200, new HealthResponse("ok"));
            } else {
                sendError(exchange, 404, "Not found: " + path);
            }
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            sendError(exchange, 400, e.getMessage());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Internal error: " + e.getMessage());
            sendError(exchange, 500, "Internal server error");
        }
    }

    // ── Handlers ──────────────────────────────────────────────

    private void handleListTasks(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
        sendJson(exchange, 200, store.load());
    }

    private void handleGetTask(HttpExchange exchange, int id) throws IOException {
        Task task = findTaskOrNull(id);
        if (task == null) {
            sendError(exchange, 404, "Task not found: " + id);
            return;
        }
        sendJson(exchange, 200, task);
    }

    private void handleCreateTask(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
        String body = readRequestBody(exchange);

        // Jackson's tree model for flexible parsing
        JsonNode node = mapper.readTree(body);
        JsonNode descNode = node.get("description");

        if (descNode == null || descNode.asText().isBlank()) {
            sendError(exchange, 400, "Description is required");
            return;
        }

        String description = descNode.asText();
        List<Task> tasks = store.load();
        int nextId = tasks.stream().mapToInt(Task::id).max().orElse(0) + 1;
        Task task = new Task(nextId, description, false);
        tasks.add(task);
        store.save(tasks);

        sendJson(exchange, 201, task);
    }

    private void handleUpdateTask(HttpExchange exchange, int id)
            throws IOException {
        List<Task> tasks = store.load();
        for (int i = 0; i < tasks.size(); i++) {
            if (tasks.get(i).id() == id) {
                Task completed = tasks.get(i).complete();
                tasks.set(i, completed);
                store.save(tasks);
                sendJson(exchange, 200, completed);
                return;
            }
        }
        sendError(exchange, 404, "Task not found: " + id);
    }

    private void handleDeleteTask(HttpExchange exchange, int id)
            throws IOException {
        List<Task> tasks = store.load();
        boolean removed = tasks.removeIf(t -> t.id() == id);
        if (!removed) {
            sendError(exchange, 404, "Task not found: " + id);
            return;
        }
        store.save(tasks);
        sendJson(exchange, 200, new MessageResponse("Deleted task " + id));
    }

    // ── Utilities ─────────────────────────────────────────────

    private Task findTaskOrNull(int id) throws IOException {
        for (Task task : store.load()) {
            if (task.id() == id) return task;
        }
        return null;
    }

    private int parseIdFromPath(String path) {
        String[] segments = path.split("/");
        try {
            return Integer.parseInt(segments[segments.length - 1]);
        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                    "Invalid task ID: " + segments[segments.length - 1]);
        }
    }

    private String readRequestBody(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
        try (InputStream is = exchange.getRequestBody()) {
            return new String(is.readAllBytes(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
        }
    }

    private void sendJson(HttpExchange exchange, int status, Object data)
            throws IOException {
        byte[] bytes = mapper.writeValueAsBytes(data);
        exchange.getResponseHeaders().set("Content-Type", "application/json");
        exchange.sendResponseHeaders(status, bytes.length);
        try (OutputStream os = exchange.getResponseBody()) {
            os.write(bytes);
        }
    }

    private void sendError(HttpExchange exchange, int status, String message)
            throws IOException {
        sendJson(exchange, status, new ErrorResponse(message));
    }

    // ── Response records ──────────────────────────────────────

    private record ErrorResponse(String error) {}
    private record MessageResponse(String message) {}
    private record HealthResponse(String status) {}
}

Gson vs Jackson comparison

Feature	Gson	Jackson
Serialize	gson.toJson(object)	mapper.writeValueAsString(object)
Deserialize	gson.fromJson(json, Type.class)	mapper.readValue(json, Type.class)
Tree model	JsonObject / JsonElement	JsonNode
Size	~300 KB	~1.7 MB (core + databind + annotations)
Performance	Good	Faster for large payloads
Ecosystem	Google	Industry standard, Spring default
Record support	Works out of the box	Works out of the box (2.12+)

Both are excellent. Gson is simpler and smaller. Jackson is faster and more feature-rich. Choose based on your project's needs.

Gradle commands

# Compile
./gradlew build

# Run the application directly
./gradlew run

# Create the fat JAR
./gradlew shadowJar

# Clean build output
./gradlew clean

# Clean + build
./gradlew clean build

# List all available tasks
./gradlew tasks

Running the app

# Option 1: ./gradlew run (quick, for development)
./gradlew run

# Option 2: fat JAR (for deployment)
./gradlew shadowJar
java -jar build/libs/task-api-1.0.0-all.jar

Result:

Task API running on http://localhost:8080
Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Gradle wrapper

Like Maven, Gradle has a wrapper so builds work without a global installation. Generate it:

gradle wrapper

This creates gradlew (Unix), gradlew.bat (Windows), and a gradle/wrapper/ directory. Commit these to version control.

Now anyone can build with:

./gradlew clean build
./gradlew shadowJar

The wrapper downloads the correct Gradle version automatically. Always use the wrapper in CI/CD and shared projects.

Build cache and incremental builds

Gradle is often faster than Maven, especially on repeated builds, mainly because of:

1. Incremental compilation - only recompiles changed files
2. Build cache - reuses outputs from previous builds
3. Gradle daemon - keeps a JVM running in the background

On a warm daemon with no changes, Gradle can often finish much faster because it reuses cached work. The exact speedup depends on the project and machine.

# First build
./gradlew build    # ~5 seconds

# Second build (nothing changed)
./gradlew build    # ~0.5 seconds (UP-TO-DATE)

Deploy with Gradle

Update the deploy script from chapter 12:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

SERVER="deploy@YOUR_SERVER_IP"
REMOTE_PATH="/opt/task-api"

echo "Building..."
./gradlew shadowJar -q

echo "Uploading..."
rsync -avz build/libs/task-api-1.0.0-all.jar "$SERVER:$REMOTE_PATH/task-api.jar"

echo "Restarting..."
ssh "$SERVER" "sudo systemctl restart task-api"

echo "Checking health..."
sleep 3
curl -sf https://yoursite.com/api/health && echo " - OK" || echo " - FAILED"

Which build tool should you use?

Situation	Recommendation
New project, small team	Either - personal preference
Joining an existing project	Use what the project uses
Enterprise / Spring Boot	Maven is more common
Android / Kotlin	Gradle is required
Need maximum build speed	Gradle
Want simplest setup	Maven

Both Maven and Gradle:

• Download dependencies from Maven Central
• Follow the same src/main/java directory layout
• Produce the same JAR output
• Support the same plugins and integrations
• Work with all Java IDEs

The choice rarely matters for the end result. Pick one, learn it well, and switch later if needed.

Summary

• Gradle uses Kotlin DSL (build.gradle.kts) instead of XML - more concise and programmable.
• implementation("group:artifact:version") declares dependencies (same Maven Central repository).
• ./gradlew run starts the app directly; ./gradlew shadowJar creates a deployable JAR.
• The Gradle wrapper (gradlew) ensures reproducible builds without a global installation.
• Jackson (ObjectMapper) is the industry-standard JSON library - writeValueAsString and readValue.
• Gradle's incremental builds and build cache make rebuilds significantly faster than Maven.
• Neither tool is universally better - choose based on your team, project, and ecosystem.

For advanced Maven topics (BOMs, multi-module projects, profiles), see the Maven deep dive.

Next up: Streams & Lambdas - functional programming in Java with the Stream API.