Overview
The article discusses the integration of Play Framework with Gradle as a build system, highlighting LinkedIn's experiences and evaluations of Gradle's capabilities for building Play applications. It outlines the challenges faced with SBT, the current status of Gradle's Play support, and the milestones for achieving a robust integration.
What You'll Learn
1
How to build a fully featured Play application using Gradle
2
Why Gradle offers better dependency resolution performance compared to SBT
3
When to use Gradle for Play applications to improve build times
Prerequisites & Requirements
- Understanding of Play Framework and Gradle basics
- Familiarity with build systems and dependency management(optional)
Key Questions Answered
What are the milestones for integrating Play Framework with Gradle?
The integration consists of three milestones: Milestone 1 focuses on building a Play application using Gradle, Milestone 2 introduces continuous mode and hot-reload features, and Milestone 3 adds Scala interactive REPL support along with documentation and integration with Specs2.
How does Gradle perform compared to SBT in building Play applications?
Gradle outperformed SBT in build times, with a clean build time of 18.5 seconds for a basic Play application compared to 22.2 seconds for SBT. For incremental builds, Gradle took 11.5 seconds while SBT took 16 seconds, demonstrating Gradle's efficiency.
What are the scalability challenges faced with SBT?
SBT presents scalability challenges, particularly in dependency resolution, which can take 5-10 minutes for LinkedIn's applications, with some projects exceeding 30 minutes. This has prompted LinkedIn to explore Gradle as an alternative build system.
Key Statistics & Figures
Clean build time for basic application
18.5 seconds
Compared to 22.2 seconds for SBT
Incremental build time for basic application
11.5 seconds
Compared to 16 seconds for SBT
Dependency resolution time for Gradle
19.55 seconds
Significantly faster than SBT's 31.3 seconds for the update task
Technologies & Tools
Build System
Gradle
Used for building Play applications and managing dependencies
Web Framework
Play Framework
Framework for building web applications at LinkedIn
Build System
Sbt
Default build system for Play applications, facing scalability challenges
Key Actionable Insights
1Adopting Gradle for Play applications can significantly reduce build times, especially in large projects.Given the performance evaluations showing Gradle's superior speed in clean and incremental builds, teams should consider transitioning to Gradle to enhance development efficiency.
2Utilizing Gradle's dependency resolution features can streamline project management and ensure consistent artifact versions.By leveraging Gradle's organization-level dependency resolution, developers can avoid version conflicts and maintain a stable build environment.
3Engaging with the Play community for feedback during Gradle integration can lead to better outcomes.Community involvement can provide valuable insights and suggestions that enhance the integration process and address common pain points.
Common Pitfalls
1
Relying solely on SBT for Play applications can lead to significant delays in build times.
Many developers may not realize the extent of SBT's performance issues until they encounter long wait times during dependency resolution, which can be mitigated by transitioning to Gradle.
Related Concepts
Dependency Management Strategies
Performance Optimization Techniques In Build Systems
Integration Of Build Tools With Web Frameworks