How To Use Gradle API vs. Implementation Dependencies (Java Library Plugin)

The Gradle Java Library Plugin is the recommended plugin to use when building libraries that will be consumed by another project. It offers the ability to distinguish between api and implementation dependencies, offering some key benefits for whoever consumes the library.

In this video you’ll learn the main differences between api and implementation configurations with a real-world example showing exactly how things work under the covers.

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Get the code used in the example in the video:

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[rockmanvnx]

I spent hours of research and couldn't understand until i found this video. Thank you so much

[lisafox]

Cannot access =>
IntelijIdea, but in eclipse ok ... why?

[GSUGambit]

What the equivalent to dependency management in maven to gradle?

[alexei]

Thank for example about plugin "maven-publish". It's very helpful

[SriHarshaChilakapati]

It took me a whole while to actually understand the older ones, but only after a short while, Gradle changed into implementation and api. However, the older ones (Maven conventions) are more straight-forward right?

We used to have
compile - For compile & runtime classpaths
provided - For compile classpath but not runtime classpath
runtime - For only runtime classpath

After spending so much time to understand the above and seeing Gradle changed them immediately later, made me stick to implementation which simply worked everywhere I go. Thanks for this video, I finally understand the new approach too.

[praveenathangavel]

What is the api equivalent for annotationprocessor for lombok

[rajdhar]

Excellent explanation, to the point.
Thank you so much.

[krown]

Your IntelliJ IDEA Theme doesn't correlate with your room and t-shirt Theme. Please make it IntelliJ Light as well :-)

[bitwisedevs]

Awesome! This is what I am looking for a visual representation of what is happening behind the scene.

One more question, what will happen if I change jackson from api to implementation in consumer side

[Firaristt]

thank you for great explanation. So basic, so clear and yet, detailed enough to generate and use library.

[manueljordan]

Excellent video, really well covered. Again how a friendly suggestion: consider to do a new video of this same type but covering about Testing. There are other 'names' about how to refer the dependencies. Keep doing this amazing work!

[krzysztofkamieniecki]

The jacket in the background disturb me a lot :)

[gullujumper]

Awesome video thank you. Do you have anything planned about how to handle non jar dependencies from zip files like dlls/js/.. ?

[buildlackey]

didn't quite get this before your explanation.. the way you showed the published maven pom artifact lit the light bulb in my thick head ;^) thnx !

[KonradSzewczukMusic]

Hi, very good demonstration! It would be nice if you can demonstrate compileOnly, runtimeOnly and annotationProcessor :)

[lewismachilika]

A problem occurred evaluating root project 'library'.
> Cannot create a Publication named 'MavenPublications' because this container does not support creating elements by name alone. Please specify which subtype of Publication to create. Known subtypes are: MavenPublication

[tonys]

It would be nice to talk to the rest of the world learning the tools who haven't been using them for 1+ years. You should start by giving a reference to build on. Visualize your reference. Thanks for the effort. Now I need to go to a source that can get me up to speed to understand what you're saying.

[JoseGarcia-bnkq]

Your Gradle series is brilliant. Thank you, Tom.

[tassitanoca]

Excellent video :-). can I transform the library module to be used as a BOM into de Consumer? If yes, should I include a pom that list all my libs into my Library module?