Hello Aarav, While I really appreciate the efforts you have put into this, I can’t help but wonder: *Why?*
Being a developer myself, I personally do not care too much for the whole *“Maven vs. Gradle”* discussion that some people seem to make their entire existence about. But still, I want to question the *elephant in the room*: There is already an established ecosystem for Maven in the Jenkins CI universe, aiming to standardize plugin development to a certain degree (in my opinion, one could even add *“successfully”* here). A lot of work has been invested into this, and there is still plenty left to do. By the end, it’s not only about making the creation of new plugins easy, but—more importantly—keeping the cost of maintenance manageable for contributors to existing plugins. Now, just assuming that *everything that works with Maven today would also work with Gradle tomorrow*—which is a huge task in itself—we would end up with *two systems that need to be kept in sync*. And ultimately, one of them would need to be phased out. Would you mind giving me an idea of what benefit Gradle could bring in the long run over Maven? Would it solve issues that currently can not be solved using Maven? Would it make maintenance easier? BR, Daniel [email protected] schrieb am Donnerstag, 21. August 2025 um 12:07:28 UTC+2: > Hello Jenkins Developers! [image: 👋] > > I am very excited to announce the Jenkins Gradle Convention Plugin > <https://github.com/aaravmahajanofficial/jenkins-gradle-convention-plugin> > — a Kotlin-first, Gradle Convention plugin (a feature similar to Maven > Parent POM - docs > <https://docs.gradle.org/current/samples/sample_convention_plugins.html>) > that standardizes and simplifies building Jenkins plugins with Gradle. This > plugin extends and builds upon the well-established gradle-jpi-plugin > <https://github.com/jenkinsci/gradle-jpi-plugin>, adding the unified > build flow, conventions, opinionated defaults, and integrations that bring > Gradle-based Jenkins plugin development tools closer to what is possible in > the Maven tools (hosting compliance, BOMs, testing and PCT, quality gates). > It also allows for idiomatic Gradle experience. > > This plugin is being developed as part of my Google Summer of Code 2025 > project, in collaboration with Gradle, Netflix and the Kotlin Foundation. > My mentors for this project are Oleg Nenashev > <https://github.com/oleg-nenashev>, Steve Hill <https://github.com/sghill> > and Rahul Somasunderam <https://github.com/rahulsom>. > > For more details, check out the Project Idea Page > <https://kotlinlang.org/docs/gsoc-2025.html#gradle-convention-plugin-for-developing-jenkins-plugins-easy-to-hard-90-hrs-to-350-hrs> > > and My Project Page > <https://community.gradle.org/events/gsoc/2025/jenkins-plugins-toolchain/>. > Here is also my demo from the mid-term evaluation: Google Drive Link > <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VaGFiRP466RS1FyaT6rT7xskZKXJ50x_/view?usp=drive_link> > . > > P.S.: A newer “JPI2” variant of the Gradle JPI Plugin was introduced by > Rahul and Steve, adding support for Gradle 8+ and improved dependency > handling. Once this new version provides the necessary APIs, the convention > plugin can be moved to it. > > Background & Motivation > > In late 2022 the community discussed > <https://groups.google.com/g/jenkinsci-dev/c/lHQAiEepBiw?pli=1> the > limitations of Gradle for Jenkins plugin hosting and automation. New OSS > plugins built with Gradle were temporarily blocked until the hosting > requirements were met, and maintainers called for help to close the gaps in > the Gradle toolchain. This plugin and the wider GSoC’25 effort are direct > follow-ups to that discussion. > > What my plugin brings today > > 1. First-class support for the Jenkins BOM, plus support for other > ecosystem BOMs like netty, jetty, jackson, sl4j etc. > > 2. Industry-standard code-quality tools like Spotless, Spotbugs, PMD, > Checkstyle, Detekt, JaCoCo/Kover, OWASP deps check etc.; all wired up with > defaults aligned to the Jenkins ecosystem and defaults in the Maven Parent > POM. > > 3. Corrects and enriches the generated plugin manifest (e.g., developers, > licenses, SCM, plugin metadata), aligning with Maven defaults and Jenkins > publishing(update-center) expectations > > 4. Superior DX: version-catalogs, concise DSL to reduce boilerplate > > 5. Zero-Config Setup: just apply my plugin from the Gradle Plugin Portal > <https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/io.github.aaravmahajanofficial.jenkins-gradle-convention-plugin/> > > in your `build.gradle.kts` and you are ready-to-go :) > > Native Gradle Support in Jenkins PCT > > One of the major deliverables for this project is enabling Gradle-built > plugins to be tested by Plugin Compatibility Tester in the same way as > Maven-built ones. > > I have suggested a patch for this in this PR > <https://github.com/jenkinsci/plugin-compat-tester/pull/795>. > > Next Steps > > The Jenkins Gradle Convention Plugin is an important step toward making > Gradle a first-class citizen in Jenkins plugin development, closing > long-standing gaps identified in prior community discussions.While still > under active development as part of GSoC’25, it already provides a usable > foundation with conventions, BOM management, quality gates, and PCT > integration. More work is needed to add support for plugins continuous > delivery. Seamless integration with Jenkins pipeline steps like > buildPluginWithGradle > <https://github.com/jenkins-infra/pipeline-library/blob/master/vars/buildPluginWithGradle.txt> > > for CI workflows is on our roadmap. > > I invite all the Jenkins community developers and, especially, maintainers > of Gradle based plugins, to try it out, provide feedback, and help refine > it into a stable toolchain that benefits all.Contributions, real-world > testing, and discussions are very welcome :) > > Source code is available in my GitHub repository > <https://github.com/aaravmahajanofficial/jenkins-gradle-convention-plugin>. > If you would like to share any feedback, please respond in this thread or > create a GitHub issue. We also have a #jenkins-plugin-toolchain channel > on the Gradle Community Slack <https://slack.gradle.org/>. > > Best wishes, > > Aarav Mahajan <https://github.com/aaravmahajanofficial/> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Jenkins Developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-dev/7bd8e194-0a9d-46b1-a9e0-33eb3705aa26n%40googlegroups.com.
