Monday, November 22, 2021

Top 5 Courses and Books to Learn Gradle for Beginners in 2024 - Best of Lot

Gradle is one of the latest tools for Java developers to create build scripts and manage dependencies. It's a good alternative to Maven and the best thing about Gradle is that finally, you have a much more readable, and concise build scripts. With Maven, build scripts are written using XML in pom.xml file which is very verbose, but with Gradle, build scripts are written using Groovy which is very concise by design. This means the same 100 line Maven build script can be replaced by 10 to 20 lines of Gradle script. To give you an exam, here is a diagram that compares a Gradle script to a Maven pom.xml file.

Because of this clarity and conciseness, Gradle is rising as the preferred choice as the build tool for Java developers and DevOps engineers. Also, more and more companies are using Gradle over Maven. I expect this rise to continue because of obvious reasons in terms of the quality of the build script. I personally like reading the Gradle build scripts and using them wherever possible.

Gradle is also used in Android Studio to build Android applications. Gradle lets you compile and test your code, create jars and wars for your applications, generate Javadoc, and much, much more.

If you also excited about what Gradle offers and wants to learn more about Gradle so that you can use it in your project, be it a home project or office, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I am going to share some of the best courses and books to learn in Gradle in 2024.

These are some of the great tutorials, online courses, and classes you can use to learn Gradle quickly without attending any coding bootcamp style classroom training.

Knowing Groovy definitely helps to read and write Gradle script but it's not mandatory. You will pick enough groovy while writing Gradle build script, but if you can, by all means, learn Groovy. It's a super useful tool for Java developers, you can also use Groovy to write data-driven test cases using the Spock framework.





5 Best Online Courses to Learn Gradle for Beginners in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of some of the best online trading courses to learn Gradle in 2024. I have tried to include courses that are suitable for both beginners and intermediate developers. As I have said before, some knowledge of Groovy will help but it's not mandatory.


1. The Gradle Masterclass [Best Course for Beginners]

This is one of the best courses to learn Gradle for Java Developers. In this course, you'll learn about Gradle from scratch. This course covers things like the basics of Gradle; the Domain Specific Language or DSL, the Domain Object Model, and Lifecycle.

If you don't know Gradle relies heavily on DSL, also known as Domain-Specific Language, and Groovy is great for DSL. The 200 lines build files for Maven in pom.xml is generally take 10 or 20 lines in the Gradle build file because of Groovy's concise syntax. Btw, you can also use Kotlin as DSL.

For a long time, Groovy has been Gradles go to DSL language. So it makes sense to learn Groovy and understand how to use Groovy with Gradle, so you can get the maximum benefit from both. This course does not just that but also it will show you how to use Kotlin as the DSL and what IDE support there is available for this amazing programming language.

In short, a great course to learn Gradle with both Groovy and Kotlin, and I strongly recommend this course to any Java or Groovy developer who wants to use Gradle for building Java applications.

Top 5 Courses and Books to Learn Gradle for beginners



2.. The Gradle Crash Course 2024 (with Groovy)

Whether you are a college student looking for a way to build your code(for free) or an industry professional looking for a one-stop shop to build your project or an upgrade from Maven. Gradle can handle everything from file management to build scans to the integration with Continuous Integration Platforms like Jenkins and TeamCity.

You will get a quick grasp on Gradle. It is one of the best build automation tools out there, with the ability to write fast and highly customizable builds in Groovy or Kotlin.

The course is divided into sections, each independently forming a module and a course in itself. Each section is backed up by quizzes and assignments to keep you on track.

Whether you are a college student looking to get some experience with automated builds or a professional looking for a tool to build and test code you will find what you need here. Everything is well documented and separated, so you can find what you need.

best course to learn Gradle build tool for Java developers



3. Gradle Fundamentals By Kevin Jones

If you have a Pluralsight membership and looking for a good Gradle course to start with then you must check the Gradle Fundamentals course by Keven Jones. Gradle is the latest and greatest Java build tool and provides the power of Maven on building Java projects and managing dependency but with a far more readable, maintainable, and powerful development model.

This course is an introduction to Gradle. It is highly and easily extendable. While Gradle itself is written in Java, it provides a DSL that’s written in Groovy in which you write the configuration scripts. This course covers the basics of Gradle, from writing tasks in the DSL, through running Java builds and unit testing, on to ways to extend the build language itself.

Gradle does not provide its own dependency management system but instead, It can use Maven or  Ivy's dependency management feature, you will learn how to configure and use both of those systems. Finally, you will learn about the Gradle 'wrapper', a mechanism to ensure your developers always use the correct version of Gradle.

Top 5 courses to learn Gradle for DevOps



4. Gradle in Action [Book]

So far we have seen multiple online courses to learn Gradle from both Udemy and Pluralsight, created by some Gradle experts and developers with practical Gradle experience. While courses are good to learn common things and they help you to get started quickly they are not as comprehensive as a book.

If you want to learn Gradle in-depth then the best approach is to combine any of the above courses with a comprehensive book like Gradle in Action by Manning. This book not only teaches you the basics of what is Gradle and what benefits it offers over other Java build tools but also advanced topics like testing, continuous integration, and monitoring code quality.

Gradle is an extensive build tool and dependency manager for programming projects. Gradle can automate the building, testing, publishing, deployment, and more software packages or other types of projects such as generated static websites, generated documentation, or anything else. 

This book helps you to learn everything about Gradle a developer or DevOps Engineer needs to know.


best book to learn Gradle for developers and DevOps engineer




5. Gradle Fundamentals

This is another great course to learn the fundamentals of Gradle in Udemy.
In this course, students will learn the core concepts of Gradle and how to use Gradle to manage the building, testing, and deploying your Java application.

You will first go through some Gradle fundamentals and learn about common tasks like how to build a Java project with Gradle, add a dependency to a project, and create a library module. We'll also get into the Gradle project structure, Gradle tasks, Gradle in the cloud, and more.

This is also a very hands-on course and you will learn Gradle by working through exercises and common tasks like how to set up and use Gradle, how to create Gradle tasks and use Gradle in the cloud, and how to add a dependency to a project and create a library module.

Talking about social proof, this is one of the highest-rated Gradle courses on Udemy. It has on average 4.4 ratings from close to 253 participants and more than 1,420 students have enrolled in this course. Overall a nice course to learn Gradle online.

best online course to learn Gradle


That's all about some of the best courses and books to learn at Gradle in 2024. If you are looking to learn a couple of tools for DevOps in 2024, I think Docker and Gradle should be on top of your list. They are my favorite tools as they really help developers in their work. They simplify the development process which is very important while working in large, complex enterprise Java projects.

Other DevOps Resources and Articles you may like

Thanks for reading this article of ar. If you like to find these best Gradle books and courses for Java developers useful then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are an experienced Java developer and looking for some courses to start your DevOps journey and learn essential tools like Jenkins, Maven, and Grale then, you can also check DevOps: CI/CD with Jenkins, Maven, and Gradle to build continuous integration, delivery and DevOps pipeline with Jenkins and Gradle.

2 comments :

Renato Ivancic said...

@Javin Paul I totally agree with your list of resources for beginners. For me especially helpful was Gradle in Action book which had very structured content. While now most of the time I use Gradle documentation directly.



I would like to add here in the comment my own Udemy course about Gradle Plugin Development, which might not be for total beginners.
https://www.udemy.com/course/gradle-development/?couponCode=JAVAREVISITED

As the title says its the course about Gradle plugins. Especially I dig deeper into the topic of binary plugins. Accompanying is the example of one Java binary plugin for sorting files, you will learn how to develop the plugin configure it and publish it to Gradle Plugin Portal.



If you use following coupon code JAVAREVISITED you will get a discount till end of June 2022.

javin paul said...

Hello Renato, thanks for sharing a coupon for our readers, I appreciate it. If you like you can also publish your preview videos on our Javarevisited Youtube Channel, you can drop me an email on savingfunda@gmail.com to discuss more. All the best with your course.

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