Build dependency for custom plugin, composite build

Help/Discuss
1

I am studying how to write a custom Gradle plugin, using the composite build strategy (use includeBuild to add the custom plugin into the main project) as detailed here.
Here is how my project is structured:

Screen Shot 2022-12-07 at 6.09.12 PM
Screen Shot 2022-12-07 at 6.09.12 PM1409×730 139 KB

If I need to include an external library in my custom plugin, say, 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.6', I get an error saying that no repositories is defined.

Does the repositories defined (using dependencyResolutionManagement) inside the main project level settings.gradle not apply to the custom plugin project?

Here is what my top levelsettings.gradle looks like:

pluginManagement {
    repositories {
        gradlePluginPortal()
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}
dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

rootProject.name = "LocalJavaGradlePlugin"
include ':app'
includeBuild('customPlugins')

I tried copy pasting the same dependencyResolutionManagement block to the settings.gradle file of the custom plugin, as shown here:

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

rootProject.name = 'myfirstplugin'

, but I now get an error saying: “Build was configured to prefer settings repositories over project repositories but repository ‘Gradle Libs’ was added by unknown code”. I can change repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS) to PREFER_SETTINGS, but now I get that same message over and over as warnings, even if it is no longer an error. So this doesn’t feel like it’s the correct way to proceed either.

Any suggestions on what is the correct way to handle dependency for a custom plugin?

2

Does the repositories defined (using dependencyResolutionManagement) inside the main project level settings.gradle not apply to the custom plugin project?

No, of course not.
A settings script defines one build.
Your plugin project is a different build with its own settings script.
There are only a few exceptions like build cache settings that propagate down to the included builds iirc.

So this doesn’t feel like it’s the correct way to proceed either.

It is. You are just tripping a bug that tells you that you should update your Gradle version as it was already fixed in recent versions. :slight_smile:
It also only happens during IDE sync.