

Table of Contents
1. Overview
In this article, We are going explain how to create spring boot Gradle application or Spring boot Gradle Example. Gradle is very popular build tool as like maven. Here we have created spring boot Gradle application with Intellj IDE. Here is guild how to create java application with Gradle.
2. Example
Here in the example, we have gradlew.bat
(for windows), gradlew
(for Linux) and gradle\wrapper
to build and run Gradle application which will be automatically created while creating Gradle application IDE. We can also add those files using the command line here is documentation for add wrapper files.

Spring boot Gradle example
2.1 build.gradle
Location of build.gradle
must be at the root of the application that we can see in above project structure. Read comment for each configuration requirements:
buildscript { repositories { mavenCentral() } dependencies { classpath("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-gradle-plugin:1.5.9.RELEASE") // spring boot gradle plugin will used for generate jar } } repositories { mavenCentral() } description = "Spring boot Gradle Example" apply plugin: 'java' // plugin for java apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot' // plugin for spring boot framework jar { baseName = 'spring-boot-gradle-example' // jar file name version = '1.0.0' // application version } dependencies { compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web") // web application dependency } sourceCompatibility = 1.8 // for Java 1.8 targetCompatibility = 1.8 group 'spring-boot-demo' version '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
2.2 application.properties
application.properties file contains properties related to spring boot application. make sure that application.properties file bust inside resources
folder.
server.port=8181
2.3 SpringBootApplication
package com.javadeveloperzone; import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication; @org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication public class SpringBootApplication { public static void main(String[] args){ SpringApplication.run(SpringBootApplication.class); } }
2.4 DemoController
Spring Controller which will handle a request for /hello
package com.javadeveloperzone; import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping; import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController; @RestController public class DemoController { @RequestMapping(value = "hello") public String hello(){ return "Spring boot Gradle Example"; } }
Clean & Build Gradle Spring Boot Application
> gradlew clean build
(It requires wrapper in the project like gradlew.cmd(Windows)
and gradlew(Linux)
)
or
> gradle clean build
(Gradle must be installed in the machine)
It will create jar file at \build\libs.
Starting a Gradle Daemon (subsequent builds will be faster) :clean UP-TO-DATE :compileJava :processResources :classes :findMainClass :jar :bootRepackage :assemble :compileTestJava NO-SOURCE :processTestResources NO-SOURCE :testClasses UP-TO-DATE :test NO-SOURCE :check UP-TO-DATE :build
Run Spring boot Application
> gradlew bootRun
(It requires wrapper in the project like gradlew.cmd(Windows)
and gradlew(Linux)
)
or
> gradle bootRun
(Gradle must be installed in the machine)
:compileJava <-------------> 0% EXECUTING > IDLE :processResources :classes :findMainClass :bootRun . ____ _ __ _ _ /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \ ( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \ \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) ) ' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / / =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/ :: Spring Boot :: (v1.5.9.RELEASE) 2018-04-28 11:02:50.463 INFO 141760 --- [ main] c.j.SpringBootApplication : Starting SpringBootApplication on Mahesh with PID 141760 (F:\extrawork\spring-boot\spring-boot-gradle-example\build\cl asses\main started by Lenovo in F:\extrawork\spring-boot\spring-boot-gradle-example) 2018-04-28 11:02:54.576 INFO 141760 --- [ main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8181 (http) 2018-04-28 11:02:54.587 INFO 141760 --- [ main] c.j.SpringBootApplication : Started SpringBootApplication in 4.65 seconds (JVM running for 5.202)
Our spring application is running on 8181 port, Let’s call web service:
http://localhost:8181/hello

Spring boot Gradle example – output
3. Conclusion
In this article, We have seen how can quick start with Spring boot Gradle Application with example. Gradle is a replacement for Maven. Here is comparison of maven and Gradle.
4. References
5. Source Code
spring-boot-gradle-example (118 KB)