Running Gradle in Eclipse

We can generate the Eclipse project files using the Eclipse plugin. We can also import a Gradle build file in Eclipse and then execute the Gradle tasks from within Eclipse. In this section, we see how to install the Gradle plugin in Eclipse and also how we can use it to import a Gradle build file and execute tasks.

The Gradle plugin is part of SpringSource Tool Suite (STS). SpringSource Tool Suite is based on Eclipse and adds support for building Spring-based applications through already-installed plugins. We can install SprintSource Tool Suite as a standalone IDE. If we want to re-use our existing Eclipse IDE, we can install STS as a plugin. The plugin has an import wizard to import existing Gradle builds. Multi-project builds are also supported by it.

The plugin keeps track of dependencies defined in the Gradle build file as project dependencies. This means that if we change a dependency in the build file, the Eclipse classpath will be updated with the change...