New Gradle Runner version - gradlew path is now required

Today we pushed a new version of the Gradle Runner step (v1.4.x), which introduced a couple of revisions, cleanups, and minor compatibility breaks.

The first important change is that gradlew path is now required. The reason for this is that using gradlew was always the recommended way, as you can see it in the official Gradle guide. The Gradle Wrapper (gradlew) is the official "gradle version manager", the tool which makes sure that the right Gradle version is installed and is used for your build.

Otherwise, if you don't use gradlew but gradle directly, you might get an error like:

Minimum supported Gradle version is 2.14.1. Current version is 2.10. If using the gradle wrapper, try editing the distributionUrl in .../gradle-wrapper.properties to gradle-2.14.1-all.zip

The second change was the removal of the workdir input. This was mainly required to be compatible with how other Gradle steps (e.g. Gradle Unit Test) handle paths (e.g. gradlew path). If you did use the workdir input, the same effect can now be achieved with one (or two) change-workdir steps - for more information see the "Migration guide" section below.

Migration guide

If you don't have time for the migration right now, all you have to do is to not to upgrade to the 1.4.x version of the Gradle Runner step, you can keep using 1.3.x or below.

If you did not use the workdir input, all you have to do is to specify the gradlew file path. You can do this directly in the Step's input, but the recommended way (which is how if you add a new Android project bitrise.io will set the base configuration up for it) is to use an environment variable - probably the best to add it as an App Env Var, in the Workflow Editor.

To do this, you should open your app, go to the Workflow tab, click Manage Workflows to open the Workflow Editor. Now, just to be sure, you should click on the Gradle Runner step and check what's set as the value for the input: gradlew file path. The default value is most likely $GRADLEW_PATH, but depending on when you added your app it might be something different.

Now that you know what which environment variable is set, all what's left to do is:

1. click on App Env Vars on the left side of the Workflow Editor
2. check if you already have the environment variable there
3. if not, add it
4. the key should be: GRADLEW_PATH (without the leading $!)
5. value should be the path of the gradlew file, relative to your repository's root! (e.g. ./gradlew, or if it's in a sub directory ./sub/dir/gradlew)

It should look something like this:

Hit Save on the left side, and you're done! 😉

If you prefer bitrise.yml mode, this is an example, using our Sample Android App:

---
format_version: 1.2.0
default_step_lib_source: https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise-steplib.git

app:
  envs:
  - opts:
      is_expand: false
    GRADLE_BUILD_FILE_PATH: build.gradle
  - opts:
      is_expand: false
    GRADLE_TASK: assemble
  - opts:
      is_expand: false
    GRADLEW_PATH: "./gradlew"

trigger_map:
- pattern: "*"
  is_pull_request_allowed: true
  workflow: primary

workflows:

  primary:
    steps:
    - [email protected]:
        run_if: '{{getenv "SSH_RSA_PRIVATE_KEY" | ne ""}}'
    - [email protected]: {}
    - [email protected]:
        title: Do anything with Script step
    - [email protected]:
        inputs:
        - gradle_task: "$GRADLE_TASK"
    - [email protected]: {}

‍

If you did use the workdir input, the recommended migration is to add the subdirectory path (the one you had in workdir) to the path inputs (e.g. gradlew path, gradle build file path). Simply, if your workdir was ./sub/dir and your gradle build file path was ./build.gradle, just change the gradle build file path (and every other relative path input) to ./sub/dir/build.gradle.

An alternative solution is to use the Change Working Directory for subsequent Steps (change-workdir) step, right before the Gradle Runner step, and then another one right after the Gradle Runner step, to change the workdir back. Note: you can use .. as the value for the change-workdir step's path input to change the workdir one level up, ../.. to switch two levels up, etc.

Of course, as always, if you'd have any issue with the migration please contact us and we'll help you sort it out in no time!

Happy Building! 🚀