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Grade Dependency Alias Plugin

Dependency Alias Plugin is an Apache 2.0 licensed Gradle plugin that provides a simple mean to alias Gradle-style dependency notation with simplified methods that appears to be built-into Gradle itself. Providing this ability, one can simplify otherwise obscure dependencies by providing them with a clear name or even consolidate related dependencies into a single alias - take the Log4J example:

compile 'org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.4.1'
compile 'org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.4.1'

These 2 artifacts are needed for incorporating Log4J into a project, throw SLF4J into the mix and you now have 3 artifacts. With the Dependency Alias Plugin you could replace these dependencies, which alone have no meaning, with

compile log4j()

Getting started with the Plugin

Currently the plugin is not yet available in standard means (see Upcoming changes) so for now it needs to be built manually.

To build and install the plugin into your local maven repository execute the following command

./gradlew clean build install

The Dependency Alias Plugin is unique in that it's not a Project plugin but rather a Settings plugin which means that it needs to be applied in your project's settings.gradle file like so:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.vmware.gradle:gradle-dependency-alias-plugin:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'com.vmware.dependency-alias'

Make sure to include mavenLocal() in the repositories closure of the buildscript configuration in settings.gradle(see Examples for more examples) No changes are required in the build.gradle file

Examples

This code base provides 3 working examples of injecting the junit() alias into the build. See samples under /src/samples/

the alias configuration closure present in the 2 custom samples provides a way to change the plugin's behavior either by defining a different properties file to look for or by defining a whole different way of obtaining alias to dependency mapping. Note that alias definition in the standard format is done by adding a line to the alias file (defaults to alias.properties in the same location as settings.gradle) in the form alias=dependency

Compatibility

This plugin was tested with the following Gradle versions:

• 2.6
• 2.7
• 2.8
• 2.9

It does not mean that the plugin won't work on earlier versions of Gradle. It does mean that the integration tests (using Gradle's TestKit) won't work on pre 2.6 versions.

Upcoming changes

• Continuous Integration
• Coverage Report (Currently unit tests cover ~80%, 100% with integration tests)
• Make plugin accessible via standard manners (e.g. Bintray, maven central, Gradle plugin portal)
• Support aliasing collection of dependencies
• Support overriding version with alias parameters (for aliases with singleton dependency only)