Summary

When we develop applications, we usually develop the code with an IDE. In this chapter, we have seen how we can use the Gradle plugins in Eclipse, Eclipse WTP, and IDEA, to generate project files for Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA.

The plugins have a DSL to change the configuration before the files are generated. We can also use hooks to change the model objects before and after the DSL is applied. At the lowest level, we can use the withXml hook to alter the XML content before the file is written to disk.

Both Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA have plugins to import an existing Gradle project. We can then work with the project from within the IDE. Extra dependencies or changes are reflected in the classpath project files, so that the code can be compiled with the IDE's compiler. We can also run Gradle tasks from within the IDE, so we don't have to leave our favorite IDE if we want to use Gradle.

In this book, we have seen the power of Gradle as a build tool. The Gradle syntax is very consistent...