We use Eclipse to launch and debug our Java GWT project. We have a couple of eclipse launch configuration files with many classpath entries needed for running the project. Previously we used ant to build our project and had all our dependencies present on our local storage, with all classpaths pointing to libraries explicitly for project as well as launch configuration classpaths.
Once we migrated over to Gradle 6.6 and used public repositories to download our dependencies, almost everything worked smoothly - all our project classpaths were generated correctly by the gradle build. However, our eclipse launch configurations still contain the old hardcoded classpaths and I'm unable to find a way to generate these launch configurations using those gradle configured classpaths. As a result we've had to maintain the dependencies on our local filesystem so that the configurations have access to them in order to debug and run our code.
Is there a way Gradle can be used to generate these launch configurations so that we can get rid of the libraries on our filesystem and rely on whatever it pulls from the repositories during a build?
Any suggestions or workarounds will be appreciated.
It you're using Eclipse's built-in Gradle tooling (aka, Buildship) and let Eclipse generate your launch configuration, it will automatically be in sync with the project's build path, which is automatically kept in sync with the dependencies declared in your Gradle build file.
Here is an example Gradle project I just created, where I added some dependencies and the launch configuration "just works." The project is named "lib," notice under Classpath Entries is "Project Dependencies"; that's where Eclipse's Gradle tooling maintains and syncs with what's in the build.gradle file.
Here's what the project's Build Path looks like if I inspect it:
Whenever you add a dependency to build.gradle, it will automatically be included there; the launch configuration(s) then reference the project dependencies so the launches are also always in sync.
You might need to delete your existing launch configurations and let Eclipse generate new ones to get this.