Allow managed non-file task properties to be registered as outputs

[aalmiray]

Expected Behavior

Scalar properties such as Property<String> can be cached as outputs using an @Output annotation.

Current Behavior

Only file based properties (files & directories) can be cached with @OutputFile, @OutputDirectory, @OutputFiles, @OutputDirectories.

Context

A task takes Property<String> as inputs, issues a REST call, and returns a resource id. The resource id will always be the same given identical inputs. Current workaround is to store the resource id in a file that uses the given inputs as a key (hashing values together for example). However this pollutes the build directory with manually crafted files.

[lptr]

If we do this, we should make @Input work with Provider<? extends FileSystemLocation> inputs, too. Doing so would simplify the input/output annotation API, as we could retire all the @InputFile, @InputFiles, @InputDirectory, @OutputFile, @OutputFiles, @OutputDirectory, @OutputDirectories annotations for Provider-style inputs and outputs.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. Given the limited bandwidth of the team, it will be automatically closed if no further activity occurs. If you're interested in how we try to keep the backlog in a healthy state, please read our blog post on how we refine our backlog. If you feel this is something you could contribute, please have a look at our Contributor Guide. Thank you for your contribution.

[aalmiray]

Ping

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. Given the limited bandwidth of the team, it will be automatically closed if no further activity occurs. If you're interested in how we try to keep the backlog in a healthy state, please read our blog post on how we refine our backlog. If you feel this is something you could contribute, please have a look at our Contributor Guide. Thank you for your contribution.

[aalmiray]

Ping

[lptr]

This is still on the drawing board, but no immediate plans to deliver it.