Using Gradle for CI

Hey! So we’re having this group project in Software Development where I’ve gotten the job as a tester. Thus, I have to put up an environment in GitLab which automatically builds the code and run the tests people have written in jUnit. Problem is, I have no experience with GitLab or build automation systems (neither do any of the others), so all of this is quite foreign to me.

I know it is common to use Maven, but I figured that if I’m first about to learn how to use such tools I might as well learn Gradle, which I’ve heard is better. So I scoured the web and found three different .gitlab-ci.yml examples, where I got one of them to build after some modification but failed the test with error “Task ‘check’ not found in root project ‘hello’”:

image: gradle:alpine

stages:
  - build
  - test

variables:
  GRADLE_OPTS: "-Dorg.gradle.daemon=false"

before_script:
  - export GRADLE_USER_HOME=`pwd`/.gradle


build:
  stage: build
  script:
    gradle --build-cache build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - build/libs/*.jar
    expire_in: 1 week

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    gradle check


after_script:
  - echo "End CI"

The other ones failed the builds with errors:
“/bin/bash: line 72: ./gradlew: No such file or directory”
“Task ‘assemble’ not found in root project ‘hello’”

I tried finding a tutorial for how to set up Gradle in GitLab but to no avail. Would someone please be so kind and give me a step-by-step tutorial for how to set up an automatic test routine with Gradle, or maybe know of some resources that could be helpful? That would be very much appreciated! I guess I have to put a build.gradle file somewhere? I will study these things more thoroughly when I have time, but right now I just need to get it up and running before our sprint starts

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out

Glad you figured it out. Can you share what your resolution was? Thanks, -MpH

Sure, first I created a Gradle project in Eclipse using the Buildship plugin. Then I pushed all of that to the repo. I tried different YAML-files that I found on the internet but only this one worked:

image: gradle:alpine

variables:
  GRADLE_OPTS: "-Dorg.gradle.daemon=false"

before_script:
  - export GRADLE_USER_HOME=`pwd`/.gradle

stages:
  - build
  - test

build:
  stage: build
  script: ./gradlew --build-cache assemble
  cache:
    key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    policy: push
    paths:
      - build
      - .gradle

test:
  stage: test
  script: ./gradlew check
  cache:
    key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    policy: pull
    paths:
      - build
      - .gradle

Using “./gradlew” only worked after changing permissions for gradlew from 10644 to 10755. (You can just use “gradle” also)

Here is our build-file if you’re interested:

plugins {
    // Apply the java-library plugin to add support for Java Library
    id 'java-library'
}

apply plugin: "eclipse"

dependencies {
    // This dependency is exported to consumers, that is to say found on their compile classpath.
    api 'org.apache.commons:commons-math3:3.6.1'

    // This dependency is used internally, and not exposed to consumers on their own compile classpath.
    implementation 'com.google.guava:guava:23.0'

    // Use JUnit test framework  
    testImplementation 'org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-api:5.3.1'
    testRuntimeOnly 'org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-engine:5.3.1'
    
    //MySQL connector
    compile 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:8.0.15'
    
    //Mockito, for mock objects
    testCompile 'org.mockito:mockito-core:2.24.0'
}

// In this section you declare where to find the dependencies of your project
repositories {
    // Use jcenter for resolving your dependencies.
    // You can declare any Maven/Ivy/file repository here.
    jcenter()
}

test {
    // Enable JUnit 5 (Gradle 4.6+).
    useJUnitPlatform()
}

I’m still trying to figure out how to make Jacoco generate a test coverage report. It works locally on my computer but on GitLab it doesn’t show any reports.

Thanks!
Just one note:

Using “./gradlew” only worked after changing permissions for gradlew from 10644 to 10755. (You can just use “gradle” also)

gradlew downloads Gradle from internet. You don’t need this if you already use Docker image gradle. So, you should use gradle to speed up build.