Introduction

Gradle is a JVM-based build system that enables developers to write high-level scripts that can be used to automate the process of compilation and application production. It is a flexible plugin-based system, which allows you to automate various aspects of the build process; including compiling and signing a .jar, downloading and managing external dependencies, injecting fields into the AndroidManifest or utilising specific SDK versions.

Syntax

• apply plugin: The plugins which should been used normally just 'com.android.application' or 'com.android.library'.
• android: The main configuration of your app

* `compileSdkVersion`: The compile SDK version
* `buildToolsVersion`: The build tools version
* `defaultConfig`: The default settings which can been overwritten by flavors and build types
   * `applicationId`: The application id you use e.g. in the PlayStore mostly the same as your package name
   * `minSdkVersion`: The minimal required SDK version
   * `targetSdkVersion`: The SDK version you compile against (should be always the newst one)
   * `versionCode`: The internal version number which needs to be bigger on each update
   * `versionName`: The version number the user can see in the app details page
* `buildTypes`: See somewhere else (TODO)

• dependencies: The maven or local dependencies of your app
• compile a single dependency
• testCompile: a dependency for the unit or integration tests

Remarks

See also

• The official gradle homepage
• How to configure gradle builds
• The android plugin for gradle
• Android Gradle DSL

Gradle for Android - Extended documentation:

There is another tag where you can find more topics and examples about the use of gradle in Android.

http://stackoverflow.com/documentation/android-gradle/topics